Kingdom Hearts: Limitless Universe
by Linkinpark30101
Summary: A year has passed since Riku moved on leaving Sora and Kairi alone together. But, a violent new journey through time and space is about to begin that will send two young warriors into a battle that started many years ago. Is this Sora's final battle?
1. Prologe

KENJI ISHIKAWA PRESENTS:

THE 2010 KINGDOM HEARTS FAN FICTION PROJECT:

KINGDOM HEARTS

LIMITLESS UNIVERSE

PROLOGE

For the first time in many years, he places his foot down on the warm, golden sand of the small island that he, Riku, Kairi, and their friends use to play on so long ago. Today he wore a red shirt under a black jacket that had metal shoulder pads on them and the sleeves rolled up. He had fingerless gloves made of sturdy material that strapped to his wrists over another pair of fingerless gloves made of a thinner fabric that reached just below his elbows. He had on two belts, one held on a sack that had a second belt strapped to his leg and the other held up his black pants that were cut off half way down his shins. His shoes were black and yellow and bulky at the toe. Both had belts on them to hold them to his feet. One thing he had on him that he never gets tired of was his crown necklace.

Those he has changed a lot, the island continues to remain the same like it was in its own little world unaffected by the rest of the outside world; or so it seemed in the distance. When up close, you can see that vegetation began to grow on the wooden planks which were used to create the play forts all around the island. Though the nails still held the structures firmly, they have begun to rust and weaken over time from weathering. Even though their former play ground had begun to vanish from time, the newly grown plants that replaced it have created their own beauty. That's what Kairi would say. Sora pulled himself out of the trans produced by this sight to notice that Tidus and the others have finally caught up. "Looks like Kairi and I win the relay!"

Tidus, completely out of breath, scrambled out of the small boat onto the dock. "Give me a break Sora, you had it easy!"

"But you had Wakka to help you." Though it was true that Tidus and his best buddy, Wakka, teamed up on one boat with Selphie to row against Sora and Kairi, with Sora doing the rowing, they were not capable to row in a synchronized manor and would often row in circles. The fact that Wakka was stronger than Tidus did not help their cause either. Their boat almost tipped as well because of the unequal weight distribution between Tidus and Wakka. Sora learned over time to become ambidextrous, but that was not one of the deciding factors that brought him to victory.

"Skinny little punk didn't know how to row a boat." Wakka stepped out of the boat with his large feet and onto the aged dock with his blitz ball tucked securely under his right arm.

Selphie leaped out of the boat with ease and onto the dock. "Oh don't go blaming others! You had a hand in our loss too, y'know!"

"Yeah, you almost tipped the boat you fat ass!" said Tidus putting the blame back on Wakka.

"Hey it's not my fault; it's my girlfriend, it's like she's fattening my up, ya!" he said in his defense. Wakka has been seeing a girl named Lulu for about six months now.

"Well, how come Sora's in perfect shape and he's been with Kairi for two years?" asked Tidus as a means of overturning Wakka's excuse. "What's your secret, Sora?"

Sora chuckled. "That's the secret!" Sora and Kairi are 17. Sora looked at Kairi, who was standing off to the side as the boys argued, as she sighed. Then he looked back at Tidus and the others and motioned at them with his hands. "C'mon guys." He wrapped his arm around Kairi's waist as he walked down to the beach. Tidus summoned up the strength to straighten himself up and follow them with Wakka and Selphie. Sora and Kairi stopped on the beach and looked up at the gigantic tree at the heart of the island that looked as healthy as ever. Sora looked up at it. "Here we are again—well, most of us."

"Yeah." said Kairi. There was one thing out of place in this gathering that kept it from being perfect: Riku was gone.

Wakka put his chest out and looked at the sands that witnessed his progress in becoming a professional blitz ball player. "Alright then!" he ran to the other end of the beach and spun around facing Tidus. "Let's play ball! For old time sake, ya'!"

Tidus gladly accepted the challenge. "Alright tough guy, I'm in!"

"Oh boy." Selphie walked away from Tidus and found a seat at the edge of the beach to avoid the game.

Sora smiled again and shifted his eyes from the upcoming game to Riku's favorite spot. He left Kairi's side and made his way to that location. Sora treaded through the sand and jumped up onto the bridge that connected this small fraction of land to the rest of the island. With every step the aged bridge creaked. On this small secluded section was a tree that grew into two trunks. One grew in an upward curved shape and the other grew almost parallel to the ground before growing upward near its top. This was no ordinary tree. This was a paopu tree. It produced a sweet fruit in the shape of a star in its branches. This was Riku's favorite place to sit as he looked out into the ocean and planned their journey off the island so many years ago. Sora crawled up onto the trunk of that tree and sat as he watched the waves come in.

Kairi grew tired of watching the two boys play their absurd ball game in the sand and looked for Sora. She immediately spotted him on the tree and rushed over to him. As she approached him, he did not seem to have noticed her coming. His eyes were still fixated on the sea. Kairi walked over to his side. "Something wrong, Sora?"

"I was just thinking about Riku."

"Oh?"

Sora nodded. "I still can't believe he's gone." Riku, Sora's best friend and rival has finally left to live on his own. He left three months ago and ever since then Sora felt an empty space in his heart.

"We're all going to grow up and go our separate paths just like Riku eventually, Sora." responded Kairi.

"But you and I are going to be together, right?"

"Of course, but what I mean is, we're all going to leave our home and families some day."

Sora nodded. "I know."

Wakka leaped an amazing feet into the air and threw the blitz ball down at Tidus. Tidus reacted just in time to catch it, but the force of the ball pulled him off his feet and onto his rear. "Yes! Still got it, ya'!" As Wakka watches Tidus twitch in the sand, a ball of purple light flew into his face and hovers in front of him. "What the—?!" Wakka starts moving around trying to get away from this unexplainable phenomenon, but it kept moving closer and closer to him and would jerk to the left and then the right. Wakka finally tripped in the sand and fell onto his back.

"Hey, Wakka!" Tidus and Selphie ran over to the dazed sports fanatic and looked down over him. "Hey, are you okay?"

Wakka had lights all around in his vision as he looked up at Tidus and Selphie who shaded him from the sun. "Did you guys just see that?"

"See what?" asked Selphie.

"That funky light just now?"

"Light?"

"Ya'!" he said as he shot up. "It was dark and it flew around me and creeped me out!"

Tidus raised an eyebrow. "…have you been sniffing something?"

"I'm not wacko, Tidus!" he said. "I saw it!" That's when Wakka's eyes caught the sight of the secret place next to the roots of the mighty tree at the heart of the island. "I'll bet it came from there!" Tidus and Selphie turned to the direction of Wakka's finger that pointed to the possible source of this strange occurrence. "That's probably what lives in there!"

"You think?"

"Let's go check it out!"

Sora and Kairi left that memorable location to find the crew approaching the hole. "Hey, what are you guys up to?" he called out.

All three of them turned their attention to the couple. "I saw a weird light ya', and I think it came from in here!"

"Wakka, we told you what was making that sound, it was the wind blowing over the hole in the roof of that cave." explained Sora. "There is no monster."

"Then where did that weird light come from?!"

"Light?"

"C'mon, let's go!" The towering Wakka got down on all fours and crawled into the hole. Tidus and Selphie crouched down and followed behind him.

Sora and Kairi looked at one another and shrugged. Both of them decided to follow them in. They actually planned to go in there anyways because of the memories in that cave. Sora and Kairi followed the path into the inner chamber where the other three were. Tidus was walking around as he stared up at the ceiling, Selphie was examining the drawings on the wall with admiration, and Wakka was running around like an idiot as he looked for a possible place for the strange light to hide. "Wow, this place is still untouched."

"Hey Sora, did you and Kairi make these?" asked Selphie.

"Yeah, we were just kids back then." said Kairi.

Sora walked across the room to the place where he and Kairi had draw each other on a single stone and drew hands reaching out and presenting one another with a paopu fruit. This picture was the only one that continued to sit in his mind even to this day. "Here!" Sora flinched and spun around to see Wakka standing in front of the door—the door that changed their lives forever. "It probably lives behind here!" Wakka backed away from it and began to position his feet.

"Um, Wakka…" Wakka squatted down like a football player and put his shoulder forward. Then he suddenly launched himself against the door and slammed into it, but to no avail. "…it's a pull door."

Wakka was on his rear again. "You could have told me that ahead of time!"

Sora crouched down next to him. "Even so, there's no handle, so it can't be opened."

"Then how do you know it's a pull?"

"I can tell you, but you won't believe me." He grabbed Wakka and pulled him to his feet. "Let's get you out of here before you really hurt yourself."

Wakka started walking in the direction of the exit with Tidus following him. "Wakka, you are the biggest idiot I've ever seen."

Sora sighed and looked back at the picture of him and Kairi. Then he saw something on the picture move. He looked closer and saw a dark liquid seep from the eyes of him and Kairi. His eyes widened and his mouth hung open. He looked away at Kairi. She was looking at the rest of the cave art on the walls. Sora opened his mouth to call for her, but he couldn't utter a sound. He looked back at the picture in a panic to see it perfectly undisturbed. There was nothing. Did I imagine it? He asked himself this over and over again as his heart pace slowed to a normal beat. Then he heard a scratching sound. It was faint, but close by. To his left. Sora turned his attention to the door in the chamber and stared at it. Then he heard the sound again. It was coming from behind the door. Sora leaned in closer to get a better sense of the sound.

As Sora directed all of his attention to the door, the purple light flew in through the hole in the roof of the cave and directly into Sora's body through his back. Sora's body lurched forward from the force of the impact. "Ah!" As a result of this strange occurrence, Sora's clothes started to leak sand out of them onto the ground. Sora pulled his senses together and looked around thinking someone pushed him.

"Sora!"

Sora jerked around to see Kairi standing next to the tunnel that lead to the beach. "Let's go now."

Sora looked around the area. No one else was in the cave with them and the scratching sound was gone. He took his mind off of it and walked to Kairi. "Okay, let's meet with the others." As he walked, small amounts of sand fell out onto the ground from his pant legs.

Tidus and the others stood on the beach looking out at the sea. The sun stung Sora's eyes as he crawled out of the dark cave and shielded the sun's rays with his hand. It took time for his eyes to reajust to the lgiht. It was nearing midday he thought. He looked out to the sea at his childhood friends and another strange occurrence took place: Everything in Sora's line of sight, for a second, change. After the strange flash, Sora flinched and rubbed his eyes. What's going on? These images, the scratching, and the dark liquid; what's causing all of this? Sora looked around again to see no signs of change since he went into the secret place until the flash happened again. This time, the image stayed.

It was still Destiny Islands. Was it? It looked like the same beach, the same waters, and the same geography. But the docks and bridges and all of the man-made structures were gone. No, they're not gone; they're still there, but in wastes on the ground and in the waters. Speaking of which, the waters that surrounded the island were a dark red like wine. In fact, the entire area was a shade of red. Everything. This frightening image that Sora was experiencing was just getting worse. As he looked to the sky, he could see that it was completely blocked out by an endless sheet of dark clouds.

Sora walked forth into this dark scene and stepped into the sands of the beach. There was something sticking out of the sands in front of him. Something black. Though he feared what it may be, Sora squatted down and grabbed it. Slowly, he lifted it out of the sand and twisted it towards him. The black object poured sand out of large holes and the features of it became identifiable. It was a skull. Sora's hand began to shake realizing what he had uncovered and dropped it instantly before jumping back. The skull hit the sand and, not long after, broke down into ash in the wind. "What is this? Is—is this the future?"

"Sora!"

"Sora!"

"Sora!!"

Sora flinched and flashed his eyes open. He was back to reality. Everything was peaceful and the sun was shining. Sora looked around just be sure that he was just hallucinating. The island was still in order. "Wh—What's wrong?"

"You spaced out and dropped my ball, ya'."

Sora looked down at his feet. The place where the skull landed was occupied by Wakka's blitz ball. "Oh, sorry." Sora bent down to picked it off the ground with both hands and stood up staring down at the play thing. 'I imagined that. Nothing will happen to the islands. Never again.'

"Sora!"

Sora's head shot up and looked over to Kairi. "What is it?"

Kairi pointed to the horizon in front of the island. "Look a storm!"

A storm? The weather was perfect; there was no way a storm could start so suddenly. Sora looked at the sea. The waters were coming in faster and harder: a sure sign of a storm. Then he looked at the horizon and saw storm clouds. But these were no ordinary storm clouds. These clouds were a dark purple with lightning surging through them and they were covering the sky at an alarming pace. Just like in the image. "No…" Sora jerked around and turned to everyone. "Everyone get out of here!"

Tidus and the others hesitated with confusion, but did as instructed and ran for cover. Kairi quickly opened her pouch and pulled out her lucky charm before calling to Sora. "Sora!" Sora turned his attention to Kairi and she tossed the hand crafted item to him. "Here!"

Sora caught it in his right hand. "Thanks!" He spun the chain attached to it on his finger and thrusted his hand out to his right with the chain tightly gripped in his hand. The chain and Kairi's charm flashed and produced a white blade in the shape of a key. It was the Oathkeeper, one of the best weapons at Sora's disposal. Sora reached into his pouch and pulled out a black chain with a black crown on the end of it. He held it out in his left hand and the chain produced a black blade in the shape of a key. This was Oblivion. When using two keyblades at the same time, he would often use this combination.

Sora stood his ground as the clouds finally reached their island and covered the whole sky. When this happened, everything around him turned red. Sora stood his ground and watched the sky as he tried to keep his breathing steady while anticipating what would fall from this ominous sky. He was starting to realize that the image was coming to be reality. "Not now…not my island…I will not let this happen!"

Dark dust fell from the clouds at a slow, steady rate and began to cover the island. Each one touched the ground and became a Heartless. Sora kept his footing and watched all around him as the Heartless appeared and surrounded him. Not just one type, no; every type of Heartless was ready to do battle against him, but Sora continued to stand strong.

One Heartless shadow jumped at Sora. Sora quickly reacted as spun around and struck the Heartless with Oblivion. The keyblade passed right through it with ease and the Heartless was destroyed. Another one, a Wyvern, charged and Sora leaped over it with a forward flip with a twisted added to it in mid air before cutting it down with the Oathkeeper. More Heartless began to move in. Each one that came within striking range of Sora's keyblades was quickly cut down. Sora did not confine himself to one location. He was leaping everywhere to avoid attacks and destroy more Heartless so he would not prolong the battle. The sooner the better.

Tidus and the others watch Sora from the entrance to the secret place in awe. "Look at him go, he's really come a long way!"

"Can he make it?" asked Selphie, equally as scared as the rest of them.

Kairi looked toward the hopeless battle in worry. "I don't know; I've never seen him fight this many before."

An Armored Knight charged at Sora with its sword. Sora leaped onto the wall next to him and ran across it. The Heartless missed its target completely. Sora stepped off the wall behind his attacker and swung his weapon up the back of it and destroying it. He quickly turned around and faced his next opponent: a Luna Bandit. Both of them clashed swords with each other, but with Sora's superior skill and strategy, he quickly cut down his opponent. Sora shifted his eyes to see more and more Heartless around him. He barely put a dent in their forces. Sora quickly took on a defensive stance and suddenly felt dizzy. His head felt like it was spinning and his vision became impaired. The spinning sensation was so great he almost lost his footing. Sora shook it off just in time to avoid the magic attacks from a Bookmaster and cut down a NeoShadow in the middle of his dodge roll. Then the feeling came back; worse from last time. Sora stumbled back a few steps while trying to keep concentration, but that was impossible for him. Sora was still fast enough to react when a Gargoyle Warrior approached him and swung down at him which its axe. He quickly blocked it with both of his keyblades and left himself open. A Heartless Soldier sprung out and swiped its claws across Sora's back.

"Sora!" Kairi called out. She tried to run for him, but her arm was quickly caught by Wakka.

Sora grunted and pushed away the axe before slicing away his attacker and rolling across the ground to cut a Lance Soldier in half, but he was still dizzy and did not see the Assault Rider. The centaur-like Heartless smacked Sora with its weapon and tried to trample him. Though none of its feet stepped on him, he was kicked all over his body before he was able to roll out from under the rabid beast. Sora panted as he tried to get up, but he was out of breath. His vision was a mess, but it was clear enough for him to notice the heavy armored Devastator stationed on the take aim at him. Sora put his keyblades up to shield himself from the blast fired from the monster. The explosion happened right in front of him and sent him airborne. Sora's thoughts were so jumbled at the moment to know what was going on and he hit the ground hard and his keyblades dropped before vanishing from sight.

"No! Sora!!" Kairi called out again. Sora did not respond. He laid still in the dirt with the Heartless closing in. Kairi called again, but there was no reaction. The Heartless continued to get closer. Kairi was getting desperate. "Some one, HELP!!" And through some sort of divine intervention, her plead was answered, because beyond the blanket of dark skies, a gummi ship flew to the island and started firing shots at the ground and destroying Heartless. Kairi's eyes followed it with relief as it circled Sora and protected him.

"Now we're being attacked by aliens?!" said Wakka. "We are so screwed, ya'!"

The gummi ship landed and Donald, Goofy, and the King leaped out to protect Sora. King Mickey spotted Kairi in an instant and motioned her over. "Kairi, over here, quickly!"

"Right!" Kairi took the others with her and they ran in between the Heartless as they made their way to the gummi ship. Wakka and Tidus scrambled over to Sora and put his arms over their shoulders before running for safety inside the ship.

"Gwarsh, I hope we made it in time!" said Goofy as he bashed at Heartless with his shield.

"Of course we made it!" shouted Donald reassuringly.

King Mickey watched the passengers climb aboard the ship and called to his companions. "They're on; we got to get Sora out of here now!"

"Okay!" called Goofy. He started for the ship and grabbed Donald by the back of his shirt as he did so. As soon as all of them were on, the ship lifted off and jetted through the clouds and away from Destiny Islands.

Sora was quickly positioned upward against the wall and Kairi knelled down next to him. "Sora! Sora, can you hear me?!"

"K—Kairi…?" It was faint, but she could tell Sora said her name. He was losing blood. "Where…"

"You're safe now." she said stroking his head and holding his hand.

King Mickey approached with Donald accompanying him. He put his hand on Kairi's shoulder and she immediately turned to him. "Stand back." Kairi didn't question him and did as she was told. The King nodded to Donald.

Donald approached Sora and held out his wand. "Cure!" A green light flashed from his wand and engulfed Sora's body as it healed all of his injuries.

As soon as this light faded, Sora brought his head up and looked around. "Donald?" Sora was confused. He was glad to see Donald, but did not know what was going on. His friends were there too with Goofy at the wheel. He was on a gummi ship? "What the…what happened?"

"We saved you, Sora."

"Saved me—our island!" Sora scrambled back to his feet and ran to the side of the cockpit to see his home world being engulfed by a spreading storm cloud. Sora turned to the king. "We have to go back—!"

"No."

"We have to stop them!"

"Sora, listen!" said the King. "We took you away because we knew that there was no way you could handle the situation!" Sora hung his head. "I'm sorry Sora, I truly am."

Sora looked up at his friends. They were all gathered near the center of the cockpit and all equally saddened by the loss of their home. Sora slid down the wall of the cockpit and sat down feeling powerless.

Tidus slowly walked over to Sora, squatted down, and patted him on the shoulder. "It's okay, you did your best. I couldn't have done any better."

"But I should have done better!"

"You don't have to beat yourself up." said Kairi. "You couldn't take on that many, there's only one of you."

"…if only Riku was here…"

King Mickey waked up to Sora. "Sora, we have a lot to talk about when we get back to the castle. We might be able to find a way to save your world." Sora looked up. "Until then, you need to pull yourself together, the worst case scenario is that you will need to go on another quest and you need to keep it together."

Sora put on a straight face and nodded. "Right." He stood up and looked around at everyone. "Don't worry guys; I'll get our home back!" Everyone's spirits noticeably lifted a little. "Let's go to the castle to see what we can do."

The gummi ride to Disney Castle was not very long. Before they knew it, they where already in the gummi hanger maintained by a pair of chipmunks, Chip and Dale. "Look, they're back!"

"With Sora too!" said Dale.

Sora left the ship with the others behind him. Tidus, Wakka, and Selphie's eyes wandered around the area with wonder and amazement. "Whoa, it's like something out of a sci-fi movie!"

"This is pretty much the basement of our home." said Donald. "Let's go up top." He turned to King Mickey and bowed. "After you, your majesty."

"Thank you, Donald." King Mickey headed up the stairs with the others following behind him.

Sora was last. "Hey, Sora!" He stopped in his tracks and looked up to Chip and Dale up at the control center. "Good to see you again, you've grown!"

Sora smiled and waved. "Good to see you guys too." Afterwards, Sora began to follow the group again, but for some odd reason, he was skipping, hopping, and dancing unconsciously as he did.

"That's some nice foot work he's got going there." said Chip.

Sora caught up to everyone in the garden after coming up through the passage way in the flower castle in the middle of it. He was skipping and side stepping as he did. "Hey guys, sorry I'm late."

Wakka scratched his head. "You feelin' alright?" he asked after noticing Sora's new habit.

"Yeah, I'm fine now."

"Uh, okay."

Goofy also noticed something wrong with Sora. He was standing still, but he was tapping his foot. "You thinking of a neat song there, Sora?" asked Goofy.

"What do you mean?"

"Sora, we know you're still upset, but you don't have to try to over exaggerate that you're feeling better." said Kairi.

Sora skipped over to them. "I don't know what you're talking about guys." Sora spun around and wrapped his arm around Tidus. "You don't see anything wrong with me, right?" Tidus, a little creeped out, refused to answer. Sora leaped in front of everyone. "What's wrong guys?"

"Do you not know that you're dancing, Sora?" asked the King.

"Dancing?"

"Yeah." said Donald. "C'mon Sora, you're creeping us out!"

Sora turned his back to them and stretched his arms out. "Really guys there's nothing wrong with me; I feel…" Suddenly a purple surge of energy went up Sora's body. Sora spun around, shot out his left pointer finger towards the ground and smiled. "…Pumped up!"

Everyone was shot back from Sora's sudden change in attitude. His voice was different, his movements were unusual, his eye were covered with a purple color, and he had a purple streak in his hair. "S-Sora?!"

Sora started dancing in place. "Not Sora; Ryutaros is my name!" he said pointing to himself.

Everyone stared in confusion. "Ryu…taros…?"

"Want to dance with me?" he asked shifting his feet around before offering his hand out to Kairi.

Kairi felt a little embarrassed by his gesture and it didn't help that everyone was looking at her. She cleared her throat. "Ryutaros, what are you doing in Sora's body?"

Ryutaros performed a perfect gainer and started moon walking in the flowers. "I'm borrowing it."

"Hey, do you know how long it took to plant those, you moron!" shouted Donald.

Ryutaros leaped back into the grass, spun around and made a hand sign at Donald. "Kotae wa kiitenai!"

"What?"

Kairi rubbed her forehead. "Why did you posses Sora?"

Ryutaros started walking towards Kairi crossing one leg in front of the other and swinging his arms around as he did. "I tried to get a different one, but he was too dumb looking and he fell over."

That comment suddenly brought up the memory Wakka had about the purple light. He pointed at him. "That was you! You're the monster from our island."

"I don't live there."

King Mickey approached the possessed teenager. "Where do you come from, and what are you?"

"I'm an Imagin!" he said proudly. "I'm far away from my home."

"Imagin?" asked Selphie. "Is that a kind of monster?"

Ryutaros spun around for the thousandth time. "Don't worry, I'm harmless." he said with a smile.

"Y'know, I think he's kinda cool." Goofy said to Donald.

Mickey shook his head. "Ryutaros, if you don't mind, we need to take Sora to see someone. Will you come with us?"

Ryutaros stopped and assumed a thinking position. "I guess I can come to gain a bigger audience."

"Very good then." Mickey turned to the others. "Let's go see Yen Cid."

"Yes, sir!" said Donald and Goofy in unison.

Mickey led the group, Sora still dancing as they went, out of the garden and up a flight of stairs onto a balcony with a large pare of doors on it that lead to the throne room. However, they were not going to the throne room. The room they sought was the one beyond the door at the end of the balcony. Once they reached the door, King Mickey turned to Tidus, Wakka, and Selphie. "I'm sorry, but we need you three to stay out here, this meeting only concerns Sora and the rest of us."

"I think we can wait." said Selphie.

"Yeah, we can hang in your awesome garden, ya'." said Wakka.

"Okay, good." said Mickey. He turned and opened the doors to the library. Kairi, Donald, Goofy and Sora went in ahead and King Mickey entered last, closing the doors behind him. Inside was Yen Cid, in the far end of the room with his eyes traveling over the text of a large book. "We're back, Master."

Yen Cid looked up from the book to see the King safe and Sora with him. He did not expect to see Kairi with them, but it made no difference. "Good, you are all safe." He closed the book and left it on the desk. Yen Cid approached them and they all bowed. Kairi was quick to copy them, though she had no idea of the importance of Yen Cid to them. Sora, on the other hand, did not bow; he just scratched his head.

Ryutaros, still in control of Sora, waved to the aged wizard. "Hiya, grandpa!"

Kairi looked up and sighed. "Oh brother, he's still in there?"

Mickey raised his head and looked up to Sora. "Ryutaros, we need Sora at the moment, can you spare some time?"

He stopped dancing and threw his favorite and sign again. "Nope, don't feel like it!"

"Allow me." Yen Cid raised his hand and launched a ball of light at Sora, the light passed right through him and pushed Ryutaros out the other side in the form of sand.

He hit the floor and quickly assumed the form of a strange looking creature whose upper body was sitting upon the floor at his waist and his legs hovering over head. "Hey, what's the big idea, gramps!?"

Sora stretched. "Damn, he's finally out!"

"Are you alright, Sora?" asked Goofy.

"Yeah, I'm good." Sora turned his attention to Yen Cid. "Sorry about that, that kinda happened against my will."

"It appears you are harvesting an Imagin." he spoke. "I'll explain what's his importance is later."

Sora cracked his neck. "What is it you wanted to tell me?"

Yen Cid nodded. "What I'm about to tell you, will be part of your next journey."

"Okay." Sora stood prepared to listen with Kairi and the others standing behind Sora wishing to learn from the wise man as well.

"To begin, I should tell you that there is a new breed of Heartless, just recently discovered, that can take control of those with Hearts." he continued. "With their bodies, they have complete control over their abilities, their memories, everything."

"Is there a way to suppress this new Heartless?" asked Sora.

Yen Cid nodded. "If you have a strong will and a strong hearts, you could suppress it, or even extinguish it."

"That's good to know."

"However, these new Heartless are like parasites." he continued. "While they are in control of their host, they are slowly eating away their bodies, and will eventually decompose."

That thought came as a shock to Sora. "Are you serious?"

Yen Cid nodded. "Unless the Heartless are extracted and destroyed, the host might not survive."

Sora took all of this information to heart and looked over at Ryutaros. "What about him?"

Yen Cid looked to the Imagin as well. "The Imagin are not as deadly as these new Heartless. They can only control a body to have a physical form and will not destroy it. However, if they are to assume their own physical form, they will need to form a contract with their host in which the host must agree to it."

"He was right, he is kinda harmless." said Kairi.

"Yen Cid, you said these Heartless can take control of a person and use their abilities." Sora asked.

"Correct."

"What if they possessed a Key bearer?"

Yen Cid exhaled. "That is the worst case scenario."

"Wait, do you think that all of those Heartless that were sent to our world were trying to get Sora tired so he couldn't resist the possession?" asked Kairi.

Yen Cid nodded. "That would be the best explanation."

"So, they were after a Key bearer so they can use him." said Sora.

"And we came to rescue you." said Goofy.

"And Riku?"

That was King Mickey's time to approach Sora. He stood next to him and handed him a note. "Here, Riku sent this to us a long time ago; we thought you should read it."

"From Riku?" asked Kairi.

Sora quickly took the note in hand and unfolded it. Inside was a letter in Riku's handwriting. "Your Majesty…I have been approached by a man named Narutaki who seeks my help. According to him there is a single individual called Decade who seek to destroy all of the worlds…" Sora looked up at Yen Cid and down to the King, who motioned him to go on. "…I have left without telling my friends, nor about this reason, please do not worry them by asking them where to find me and make sure Sora and Kairi are safe…I do not know how long it will take me to track down Decade, nor how to do it, but what ever happens, don't tell Sora…Riku…"

"He didn't want you to worry Sora, but now that this has happened, it seems appropriate to let you know about him." said King Mickey.

"He left to save all of the worlds…"

"Do you understand your new quest?" asked Yen Cid.

"Well, as far as I know, we need to keep me out of those creatures's reach." answered Sora. "And find Riku."

"Not just you and Riku, but the other Key bearers as well."

"What, you mean there are more?!" said Donald.

Yen Cid nodded. "Many more." He walked closer to Sora. "Sora, this new quest will take you to new worlds that you have never encountered. Some of which are very dangerous on their own."

"There are more worlds I have yet to see?"

Yen Cid nodded. "These worlds that I speak of, however; are at the farthest reaches of the universe, beyond the ones you have visited." He paused. "But, like I said, they are more dangerous."

"How so?"

"These worlds will not only be infested with Heartless, but they also contain creatures that naturally existed on those worlds." he said. "The Imagin also come from one of these said worlds."

"I see." said Sora folding his arms. "Each of these worlds has their own monsters to worry about. So I'll have to deal with them and the Heartless at the same time."

"Yes." said Yen Cid. He held out his hand and an old, hard back book appeared. "This book contains a map to these worlds using the safest possible routs, but even those are very dangerous too." He held it out to Sora and he took it into hand. "I have book marked one certain world I want you to travel to, to find an old friend of mine."

"Huh?" Sora looked between the pages and found a fabric book mark in between a set of pages. He opened it to find the title of that section of the book. "Collision….City…?"

Yen Cid nodded. "When you go there, ask for Zeta."

"Zeta…" Sora repeated. "Alright, I got my orders." He turned to Donald and Goofy. "Are you guys ready to go on one more adventure together?"

"Who else would we rather adventure with?" asked Donald.

That's when Jimminy Cricket jumped up ontop of Donald's beak. "I have the feeling that this is going to be the adventure of a life time, I'll need to chronical it!"

King Mickey waked up to Sora. "We can keep your friends safe here and communicate to you through your gummi ship."

Sora nodded. "Alright."

Yen Cid spoke up. "Oh and do take that cretin with you." He said indicating to Ryutaros with his hand.

Ryutaros was stretching and yawning. "So boring!"

Kairi had realized that Sora was leaving now and had to talk to him. She ran up to him and put her hands on his shoulders. "Sora."

Sora faced Kairi. "Kairi…" That's when Sora realized that they were spitting up again. "I…I'm sorry."

"Please tell me you'll be careful, very careful."

He nodded. "Of course, I'll come back in one piece." Sora reached into his pocket and pulled out Kairi's charm. "I promise." Kairi looked down at her charm and smiled. Then she stood up on her toes and kissed Sora on the cheek. "Thanks, I needed that."

Sora pocketed Riku's letter and walked over to Ryutaros. Looking down at him, he offered him a deal. "Hey, we're going to take you with us; you can stay in my body as long as you don't mess with me in the worst of times."

"Really?" He seemed excited. "Alright, let's go!" Ryutaros leaped at Sora and passed into him. As a result, sand poured out of his clothes and onto the clean floor.

"Aww, why did you have to get the floor all dirty, Sora?" asked Donald.

Sora looked down at the sand. "Oops, honestly I didn't think that would happen; I'll clean it up."

"No need to worry, I'll have the brooms come and clean it up." said the King. "You guys need to get going, the gummi ship should be ready for your adventure by now."

Sora pounded his fist into his palm. "Alright, let's get going guys!" Sora opened the Door and let Goofy exit the room first followed by Donald. Before he left, Sora took one last look at Yen Cid, the King, and Kairi, who waved to Sora, and he waved back. "Wish me luck!" With that, he closed the door behind him and was off to begin a new journey.

"Good luck, Sora."

END PROLOGE

CHAPTER ONE COMING SOON


	2. Chapter 1

KINGDOM HEARTS

LIMITLESS UNIVERSE:

THE BEGINNING

CHAPTER ONE: THE WARRIORS OF COLLISION CITY

Many worlds exist in the vast universe that serves as a sanctuary to those who have lost their way, or a home to those who are born there. Collision City is one of those worlds. Like Traverse Town, those who have lost their way come to this world to live and start a new life. This city is widely known for its mixed races. For the most part, Collision City is a world made up of a large, futuristic city surrounded by a vast, healthy forest called Higurashi Woods. No one leaves the city to go into the forest, however; because it is said to be a very spiritual and sacred place.

Thought these forests are restricted by many, these trees are the home to a very unique family. The Ishikawas are a magically powerful family. They are practically the owners of most of the forest area. The family has lived at Collision city for seven decades and plans to keep the forest in the family name for years to come. These forests served as great way to provide privacy for them in their daily lives, meditation, as well as martial arts training.

In the Higurashi woods flows a fresh water river that empties out into a spring from a water fall. The water fell from a fifty foot drop into a shallow spring at the bottom. At the top of it were two individuals that stood facing each other in the pulling water. The boy, at 19 years of age, was in fit condition, but not very muscular. His hair was pitch black and his bangs pulled over his right eye. His eyes were grey. The boy wore no shirt. He wore a pair of white, baggy pants tied to his ankles and to his waist by pieces of white cloth. The same material was tied around his hands and wrists.

Across from him was a young woman who was noticeably shorter than him. This woman, around the age of 22, was very attractive with a well developed body. She had light skin as if the sun had ever touched it. Her hair was white and tied up behind her head. One of her most outstanding traits was her piercing red eyes. The color of blood. Her clothes were simple. She had a piece of white cloth wrapped over her breasts and tucked in behind her back. She also had a very short skirt with an open slit on one side tied to her body by more white cloth around her waist. Her outfit was very provocative, but displayed her fit body very well.

The boy pulled his right leg back and twisted his body to follow. He brought up his left fist and put it out in front of him with his knuckles facing upward. His right fist was held inward with its knuckles turned towards him. Then he squatted down to keep himself sturdy and on guard. The woman opposite of him also brought her right foot behind her and lifted her left leg so that only her toes were touching the ground. Her left hand extended in front of her as she held her right hand close to her chest. Both of her hands were left open. Both of them held this position as the falling water pulled at their legs and the sun beat down upon them. In an instant, the boy rushed forward and thrusted his right fist out at her. She quickly reacted and pushed the incoming attack out of the way with her hand. The boy quickly attacked with his other hand which was dodged by the woman as she got down lower and spun around behind the boy right under his fist. Knowing she would do this, he quickly twisted his body to the right and swung his right hand around at her. She quickly blocked that move by hitting his arm with the back of her hand. The boy was quick to attack again. He brought his foot up out of the rushing water and swung it out at her head. That was easily dodged. Then he followed up with the other and the other one after that. Each kick threw an arch of water into the air. He knew he was not getting anywhere with high kicks so on the next one, he swiped from her legs.

His opponent; however, saw this coming this coming and leaped over the boy with a forward flip with an added spin to her body as she did. She got behind him again. The boy leaned forward and thrusted his leg back at her. She quickly put up her arms to cushion the blow and she fell backwards onto her rear in the water, but she was not finished. She pulled her self onto her back and used a twist up to get back to her feet and ready for the next attack. The next attack was quick. He swung his arm outward and swung at her head again. She quickly blocked it with her hand again and wrapped her fingers around his wrist. Now with control of his arm, she pulled him towards her and wiped her other hand out against the side of his head. The boy was quickly dazed for a second, but that was plenty of time for her to land a tornado kick on him and he fell backwards. Off the edge of the waterfall.

As soon as he realized he was plummeting towards the water at the bottom, he quickly pulled in air and he fell in back first. The water stung his back as he hit it, but continued to hold his breath until he was to the surface where he let it out to breathe in fresh air. He treaded in place as he looked up through the mist at the woman who stood at the top. "Damn…"

He began to hear a mocking laughter near the edge of the water and turned his attention to the owner of that laugh to see his brother sitting on the edge of the water with one leg up to put his arm on. His brother was dressed in the same way as he but had a more muscular build. However, his bangs were evenly cut around his head, but his hair was longer in the back and was tied up in a rat tail. This boy also had the same face as his brother. "You lost again, Kenji." he said. "Your score is now seven to thirteen."

Kenji rolled his eyes at being reminded how many times he had lost to his older sister. But Saburo, his brother, was not much better than him when it came to scoring against their sister. His score was eight to twelve. Between them, Kenji was six to seven. But when he and his brother tag teamed their sister, their score was fifteen to five. He swam to the edge and pulled himself up to sit on the side and take a breather. He sighed. Some how he knew he would lose. Their sister had three more years of experience than both of them when it came to martial arts. Speaking of which, their sister, Hana, was still at the top of the waterfall. Kenji looked back up to see her standing at the edge with her arms above her head with one hand on top of the other. And with a small leap, she plunged head first into the waters below the crashing falls. She slipped straight into the water with barely a splash. Kenji shook his head at how she can pull that off as her head rose to the surface and she swam for shore at a calm pace.

"Can you believe we're related to her?" Saburo asked. Kenji nodded in agreement. Kenji and Saburo were both born with black hair and she with white. That is because they were born from different mothers. Their only relation was with their father, who had white hair like Hana and her mother.

As Hana pulled herself out of the water and let it fall from her body, Kenji assisted in pulling her out so she can sit down next to them. Kenji reached behind him and picked up the bamboo canteen he brought with him and offered it to Hana. Hana shifted her eyes to it and gladly took it in hand with a nod. "Thank you."

Kenji watched her as she opened the top and slowly drank from it with care and wondered how he keeps losing to her. Her body was very slender and elegant so she does not really appear to be a fighter. Then he began to think that he was losing because he was not using the style he excelled in. Nah, he thought. Just inexperience. Kenji looked up at the sky and saw the sun peaking through the trees that hung over head. "Hey guys, we should head back now."

Saburo looked up at the sun as well with his hand shading his eyes. "Right. Collect your clothes and let's get moving." He stood up and picked up the clothes he brought with him. Kenji and Hana did the same and followed him into the deep brush of the Higurashi Woods.

Meditation was the best to calm the mind and it is suggested that one meditates as often as one can. That was Zeta's philosophy. He would often conceal himself in his room and kneel before a small shrine and meditate while burning incense. Each day he would take time out of his plans and stay silent until the silence around him was broken. He was no longer the warrior he was in the past. Not after producing offspring with a woman. However, he still had the mind of a warrior and has decided to pass on what he had learned to the next generation. He had wished that the path of a warrior would end with his generation, but he knew very well that evil still lurked in the darkness. But he refused to return to his past. Never again did he wish to fight. Never again will he take innocent lives. Never again will he pick up the keyblade. If only he was not cures with his power.

Then the wooden door to the outside slid open to break the silence and he opened his eyes. He unfolded his legs and left the room to greet his children as they have returned home. He walked down the halls of the oriental styled home and came to the front foyer where his three children stood removing their footwear. "You have returned on time."

Saburo looked up and nodded. "Yeah, we don't slack off, father."

Hana put her shoes to the side near the entrance and began to leave the men. "I shall prepare our meal." She slid open the door to the kitchen and closed it behind her.

Kenji and Saburo both stood before their father and bowed. He returned it and they raised their heads. "I hope to see improvements in your skills tomorrow."

"Yes, father."

"Yes, father."

He nodded. "We will drink now and wait for food."

Kenji and Saburo both left for their rooms. Both were across from each other in the halls. Hana's was across from their father's room. His room was simple. No stereo for music, no dressers, no alarm clock. It contained a small mattress that could fit two people, a table with a phone, a picture, a lantern, and a small plant on it. It also had some wax wood staffs of different sizes in the corner for martial arts training, and a closet in the wall concealed by a sliding door. In the far right corner of the room were large stacks of books. These books Kenji read where the source to the knowledge he had today and his slight understanding of the outside world. Kenji removed the drenched pants and his shirt for something more comfortable for the rest of the evening. He put on a white lounge kimono and a pair of lounge pants from his closet and threw his used clothes in the laundry bin. Just as he was about to leave his room, he stopped near the small table and looked at the picture. It was his mom. He never had the chance to meet her because she died delivering Kenji and his brother. This was an old picture of her when she was younger. He stared at it with disappointment and tore away from it to join his family.

He entered a small room closed off with sliding doors made of paper and wood. In the middle of it was a low table, about a foot off the ground, with cushions on all four sides. On the far side sat his father with his legs tucked under him. Saburo sat to his left with one leg pulled in on the ground and one with its foot on the ground. Both were drinking from a pot of green tea served in porcelain cups. Kenji sat across from his father with his legs crossed and picked up his cup. He silently poured himself some tea and brought it to his lips. He stopped and looked up at his father. He wanted to ask him something that has been plaguing his mind. He hesitated, then let it out. "Father, what was mother like?"

Zeta stopped drinking and looked up at his son. His expression did not change, but he sent a vive as if he was surprised to hear him ask that question. Saburo raised an eyebrow and put his cup down. "Why are you asking this now?"

"I don't know."

Zeta lowered his cup a bit. "She was a…" He looked to Kenji, then Saburo. "…I'll tell you later, when it's appropriate."

Kenji sulked in his seat. He suddenly picked up the scent of spices and soup. In the corner of his eye, he saw the door to the kitchen open slightly with Hana working away to prepare the meal with excellent technique as if part of her martial arts training was done in the kitchen. He was amazed, though his face did not show it. Saburo leaned back. "I'm sure we'll know about mother soon, Kenji, don't worry about it."

"Right." he nodded. Then another question came to mind. "Why did you stop using the keyblade, father?" This time Zeta had a noticeable response. His eye twitched. Kenji gasped silently. He turned to Saburo who seemed equally surprised. He suddenly felt like he did something horribly wrong. "…Sorry, I shouldn't have asked."

The following night after the meal, Kenji and his two siblings went to sleep in each of their separate rooms. Years ago, Kenji and Saburo shared the same room as Hana and even the same bed at one time. By age thirteen, they used separate rooms, but he still managed to stay close to his sister. Hana took the role of the mother in the house and performed all of the mother's duties, but neither Kenji nor Saburo ever saw her that way. Kenji had troubles sleeping that night, and it was not because of the cicadas. Too many questions filled his mind that night: about his mother, his father's past, the keyblade, and about other worlds. His father once told them that he has traveled to may worlds before settling down on one. What were they like? Will he ever see them?

Kenji's mind flipped back to reality when someone kicked the side of his mattress. He rolled over on his bed and looked up at the dark figure standing at his bedside and looking down at him. It was Saburo. "Wh—what is it?" he whispered.

"C'mon, get up!"

"Why?"

"We're going into the city, tonight!"

"The city?" Their father forbid them from ever entering the city or even having any outside contact to anyone. He had always told then: 'Never trust anyone.' They've never met anyone on the outside their entire lives. "But we can't!"

"Pop's asleep, he'll never know."

"What about Hana?"

"She sleeps like a rock." he said. "Also, remember your ninjitsu training about light foot stepping? Time to put it to good use." He pulled out a bag and held it in front of Kenji. "I stole this money about a week ago. It should be enough for us to spend quite a bit of time in the city."

This was bad Kenji thought. Not only are they going into the city against their father's rules, but Saburo has also stolen money. "Are you crazy?"

"Not yet." He pulled Kenji out of bed. "Get some clothes on and let's go!"

"A...alright." Kenji went to his closet and looked through the cabinets. To be frank, Kenji also wanted to see the city. At night he could see lights from it above the trees and it made him wonder what it was like. Now he gets his chance to see it for himself. "What, what should I wear?"

"I got something." Saburo said. He left the room and entered his across the hall. He came back a few seconds later with a set of clothed in each hand. "Here, believe it or not, I've actually been to the city once before and got these."

"You have? When?"

"Months ago." He said. He threw one set over to Kenji. "They should fit."

Kenji looked down at the strange clothes that have been handed to him. They were very different compared to the ones he was use to wearing, but if that is what others wear, he did not argue. He quickly started changing his outfit.

Saburo and Kenji snuck out Kenji's window after getting into their new outfits. Saburo's outfit consists of a white t-shirt under a black vest with dark pants with heavy material on the knees. He also had a choker around his neck, a band on his right wrist and one on his left arm. He also wore shoes with reinforced toes. Kenji's was a little simpler. He had on a red shirt with a V neck under a white jacket with its sleeves rolled up. He also wore matching white pants and black sneakers. As soon as they were far enough from the house, they both took off running through the trees towards the lights of the city. "Saburo, you remember how to get there, or are you guessing?"

"Don't worry, I remember!" he said as he led the way through the woods. They were running straight with the lights as their guide. Before they knew it, they had left the trees and found themselves in the open. It was dark, but they could tell they were standing on a grassy field. And beyond it was Collision City, not even a mile away from the woods. "There it is!"

Kenji's eyes widened and moved everywhere to capture every part of this sight in his mind. The city consisted of many tall buildings with lights all over them and on signs. There were probably two signs to every building in the city. He could even hear the sounds of talking and music from the city, despite the distance he was at. "Amazing!"

Saburo walked forward and pointed at the city. "You see those tall buildings? Those are called skyscrapers." He started. "And they're not just homes. They're restaurants, stores, clubs, and places people work."

Kenji raised an eyebrow. "Why would father want us to stay away from such an amazing place?"

Saburo shrugged. "Dunno." Then he took a few steps forward and motioned to Kenji. "C'mon, let's go." Saburo started running towards the city. Kenji hesitated a bit, but followed him shortly after.

The streets were flocked with people and creatures. It was clearly late at night, but there were still many of the city's residents walking the streets to make use of what it has to offer. Street lights, neon signs that flickered often, and indoor lighting lit up the streets and made the area look like a night club. The music also added to the atmosphere. This scene left Kenji in awe and wonder. The city was nothing like he had imagined. The buildings, the aromas, and the people were all new to him. None of his books described anything like this. He had never seen more exotic clothes either. He could see clothes that completely covered an individual's body, clothes that showed some skin, and clothes that barely covered anything on the wearer. Could they have just showed up in their own clothes and fit right in? "This place is incredible!"

"Bitchin' ain't it?" said Saburo, who walked next to Kenji with his hands in his pockets. His head twisted and turned as he planned their time there. Then he noticed a store with rings in the front window. Some of the ones that were on display even had object dangling from them. He looked at the sign closer and saw a price: 500 munny. Saburo became curious. He pulled out the bag of money and pulled out a hand full then he put the bag in Kenji's hand. "Here, take this and do something. I'm going in here."

Kenji looked at the store's sign that read: Piercings. Then he looked at Saburo. "Okay, just don't hurt yourself." Saburo waved and entered the store. Kenji slowly turned and looked at the street with confusion. "So…what do I do now?" He had not been to the city before like his brother has. So he stood in place and observed the people around him to see what they liked to do.

As he did, he noticed something in the shadows between two shops. Something in it was moving and on it was a golden light. Kenji focused in on it a bit more to make out the figure. Judging by the figure, it was a woman. She was dressed in a black coat that reached down to her feet and she had the hood up. Her face was covered by it and some white hair that hung out of it. The glowing light that made her noticeable was one of her eyes that peeked out. Just the sight of this person made Kenji's body chill and the world around him felt like it was tilting. They stood and watched each other for a solid ten seconds, then she smiled and disappeared into the shadows. His whole body shook after she left his sight. "What was that?" It was so weird, but he decided not to think of it anymore. He decided to continue his adventure with one step, but that one step landed on something metal. He looked down and saw some strange black object with a circle on it with a simple design in it. He bent down and picked it up. This object was light in weight and had a screen on the other side. The screen flashed in his hands and lit up for a second. "What is this?" What it a cellular phone? He did not spend too much time wondering about it. He put it in his pocket and continued on his way.

The streets were not very crowded. It could be because this was the time that everyone went to sleep. But the more he traveled into the city, the more he continued to observe regular human interactions. All would call this eaves dropping, but his ignorance of such a concept kept him going as his eyes shifted around to read signs and expressions. All of these new concepts kept him distracted so that he would not notice the woman run right into him, who was also distracted while she was looking around at the ground. "Whoa, are you okay?" he asked.

She rubbed her head and looked up at him. "Yeah…I'm—I'm okay…sorta'." She also wore an outfit that was new to Kenji. She had on a black shirt covered in white flowers under a small white shirt that had one button. Also part of her outfit was a black, layered dress with black stockings and shoes. She seemed to be in distress.

"What's wrong?"

She started staring at the ground again. "Eh, I lost something."

"Something of your?"

"Yes, very important."

Kenji crossed his arms. "What does it look like?"

"Well…it's black and it had a digital screen on it. On the back is a circular emblem." she said as she drew it out in the air with her fingers.

Kenji quickly realized what she was talking about. "Oh!" He reached into his pocket and pulled it out. "Is this it?"

She looked down at the device and her face lit up. She quickly snatched it from Kenji's hands and held it in front of her face with both hands. "My DenLiner pass! You found it!" She started squealing with happiness as she affectionately rubbed her cheek against it.

Words failed Kenji at the moment. "Umm…you're welco…"

Kenji was silenced when she threw her arms around him and squeezed with amazing strength. "Thank you soooo much!" Kenji started to feel some pain and he pushed her off. She quickly regained her composure. "Excuse me; I'm Hana, nice to meet you."

"Oh, that's funny, my sister's name is Hana."

"_Honto ka_?" she asked. Then she felt a little embarrassed. "Oh, I'm sorry; I should speak to you in English."

"It's okay." Kenji said in the same language she spoke before. "I grew up with that language."

Hana smiled with relief. "That's good to know."

"Oh, right, my name is Kenji."

"Kenji? So you are Japanese?" She observed him. "You don't really look it that much, but I guess you can tell."

"Right." he said, a bit confused. "So what does that thing do? If you don't mind me asking."

She looked at the device, still in her hand. "Ummm…it's a train pass."

Kenji knew what a train was from his books. Then a detail came back to him that he had forgotten. "What does is mean when it lights up?"

"It lit up?! For you?!"

Kenji was a little surprised at her reaction. "Uh, yeah."

"Then you are a Singularity Point!" She took him by the hand. "You should come with me!"

She tugged, but Kenji pulled against her. "Wait, I can't I need to find my brother."

"But…"

Kenji pulled his arm out of her grasp. "I'm sorry, but I can't go anywhere without him." Kenji quickly turned around and started calling out his brother's name.

"W-wait!" she said in Japanese. The she looked down at her watch. It read 11:11 o'clock and 5 seconds. "Oh no, I have to leave." She looked around for a door and decided on the one on the building to her right. She ran over to it and grabbed the handle. She hesitated, thinking about Kenji and looked in his direction. But she had no time. She pulled open the door and closed it behind her.

Kenji continued to call out or his brother while traversing the streets. He halted when he saw someone at an outdoor restaurant patio talking to a bunch of girls at a table. It was Saburo. Kenji sighed with relief. "Sabu-!" His sentence was cut off when he accidentally bumped into someone, who turned around and punched him in the face. Kenji stumbled a bit as he held his hand on his face. Why did I get hit? He thought.

Kenji's attacker, the person he bumped into, was a red haired man with a black shirt, jeans, and quite a few wrist bands on him with spikes. "Watch it punk!"

That's when Kenji caught the scent of his breath. "Y'know, some people actually brush their teeth."

This man grabbed Kenji by his jacket and pulled him into his face. "What was that?!"

Kenji got a bigger scent and pulled his head back. "Geez, close your damn mouth!"

"Hey Bryan, this guy's causing trouble!"

Kenji looked to his right. A group of about five other men were showing up. They were led by a man around Kenji's age wearing a grey hoody over a dark green shirt and a pair of grey cargo pants over a pair of boots. His hair was brown and spiky. His eyes were brown too. "Drop him, Rune." The man did as told without question. This guy was obviously in charge, even though he was younger than most of the others. "So I hear you're causing trouble for my boys?"

Kenji stared at Bryan and back at the others. They looked like thugs, all except for their leader. "I was just telling this guy that he had hygiene issues, so do the rest of those guys by the looks of things." Bryan quickly glanced at his group behind him and back to Kenji without a change in expression. "Your buddy hit me first;just bumped into him on accident."

He looked back to the man who grabbed Kenji. "Hey, what the hell are you guys doing with my brother?!" The attention of everyone was grabbed by Saburo, who had just leaped down from the patio and began to approach the scene.

Bryan addressed his group. "Let's go, we're wasting our time." He turned and began to leave the twin boys. His group followed.

Saburo walked up to Kenji and stood beside him as he watched Bryan and his crew. "Yeah, you better walk away, you low-lives!"

Bryan stopped. The rest of them halted in their tracks as well and faced Saburo and Kenji. If there was one thing Bryan hated, it was being called low by the upper class. "Give the orders, Boss!"

Bryan stood silent for the moment. "Do as you please."

"You heard 'em boys!" Rune called. "Show them their place!" All six of them ran at Saburo and Kenji.

"Um, Saburo, I think you should apologize to them." said Kenji as he watcher their response.

"No way, I never take back anything I say!"

"That's true…" Kenji waited until Rune, the one who attacked him, was in kicking range. When he got within two meters, Kenji took two steps towards him, leaped up into the air, spun around once, and swung his foot right into his face before landing back onto his feet and taking a fighting stance. Rune fell and fell hard.

One of them threw a hook punch at Saburo, but he ducked under and got behind him. When he did, he extended his leg out behind him and kicked his attacker in the back. The next one tried to kick Saburo, but he crouched down, grabbed the foot he was standing on during the kick, and pulled it out from underneath him. He toppled to the hard ground. Saburo saw the third challenger run toward him. Saburo ran towards a wall with the man chasing him. When he got to the wall, Saburo ran up the wall with three steps and leaped backwards over it. He landed behind his pursuer. He turned around to see Saburo jab his foot into his gut. He flew back and hit his head against the wall, rendering him unconscious.

Word started spreading throughout the streets that a fight had broken out and the denizens of Collision City began to flock to that one location. They came together and formed a circle around the area outside the dining patio of the restaurant as Saburo and Kenji went to town with Bryan's crew. Bryan was also in the circle, but he was watching his guys. Kenji was only engaging Rune. Rune had gotten back to his feet at this point and continued to fight back. Rune was known for his boxing skills and threw numerous punches at Kenji. Kenji kept moving and blocking them as they came. He was waiting for one that would leave him open. He found his opening when Rune threw an outside swing for Kenji's head that he quickly ducked under and moved over to his side where he threw two punches to Rune's rib cage. Then he kicked him and heard a crack as Rune stumbled back. Kenji ran towards him and struck Rune in the jaw with a gainer flash kick. Rune fell onto his back and could not find the strength to get back up.

Bryan could not believe what he was seeing. All six of his gang members were being overwhelmed by two boys. "This is bull shit…" Bryan charged into the fight and swung at Kenji. Kenji quickly pulled his head back and watched Bryan. Bryan had his hands up in front of his chest and stood with his left foot out in front. Each time the two moved, he would change his footing.

Kenji found his stance familiar. Bryan threw a straight punch, one of the best thrown in this entire fight, and Kenji dodged it. A second one came soon after and he dodged it too. Then, surprisingly, Bryan brought up his right leg and swung it at Kenji, who blocked it with his knee. That's when he realized that Bryan was using kickboxing.

Saburo was having the time of his life. The next attack that came at him was a high kick for his head. Saburo spun around and brought his leg up and hooked it around his opponent's leg. He brought it down which bent it in the opposite direction. Another pulled a knife out and attempted to stab him. Saburo caught his wrist and, still holding on, turned around, wrapped his leg around this man's head and pulled him to the ground before letting go. Saburo stopped and looked at his handy work with pleasure before running to his brother's side. "Looks like you're in trouble buddy." said Saburo to Bryan.

Bryan halted his attacks and examined his men. They were all on the ground in pain. Bryan cursed. How could all of them have been beaten? Who are these guys? Kenji spoke up to him. "We can stop this right now."

Saburo stepped up. "Oh no, we're not! No one screws with us until they've learned their…" Saburo's sentence was cut off when someone bushed through the crowd around them and swung her foot into Saburo's face. Saburo spun around and he hit the floor on his chest.

Kenji was surprised. His eyes scrambled to identify this person. It was Hana, their sister. He stepped forward. "Hana I…" Hana thrusted her foot into his chest and he fell back onto his bottom.

Hana put her foot down and stared at them. "What were you two doing?! You have broken our rule of never going to the city!"

Saburo wiped his face of blood. "Hey, we just wanted to have some fun! You can't expect us to stay in the Higurashi Woods forever!" Hana glared.

Higurashi, isn't that the forest the Ishikawas live in? That's the first thought that came to Bryan's mind. The Ishikawa name was famous for their martial arts and Hana Ishikawa was a martial arts champion in Collision City. "Wait, does that mean, you're Hana Ishikawa?!" he asked her.

Hana looked back at Bryan. "Yes, that is my name."

'Then does this mean I've been fighting her brothers?' he thought. It makes sense. These two both had great martial arts skills and they were able to beat his group, which were known to be the toughest gang in the city. Suddenly, he felt like he had no chance of winning. They were bound to fail.

Hana returned her attention to her brothers. "Father knows about this; get back home now!"

Saburo called her something under his breath. Kenji didn't hear it. He pulled himself up from the ground and dusted himself off before he followed his siblings. The crowd parted as they traveled down the street with whispers flowing threw them. Kenji ignored them while he slightly hung his head. Right now he was contemplating what kind of punishment awaited them when they got back home. His concentration was broken when he heard clapping. It was not the crowd around them. It was faint, and came from one source. He looked up and shifted his eyes around for the source. That's when the same golden light from before caught his eye. It was the woman in the black coat from before. The woman was standing in the shadows like before, smiling and clapping as He and his brother and sister walked by.


	3. Chapter 2

KINGDOM HEARTS  
LIMITLESS UNIVERSE:  
THE BEGINNING

CHAPTER TWO: THE DIVE

You know that feeling when you lay perfectly still in your bed and the world around you seems to tilt and you feel like you're falling? Well, Kenji was feeling the same thing that night, and not because he was lying in his bed. It was because he was actually falling. Deeper and deeper into what appeared to be black waters. 'This is a dream,' he though as he continued his decent, head first, into the abyss, but the feeling was too real. His fall was beginning to slow as his feet started coming down and the rest of his body turning right side up. He looked down at the descending darkness as he continued downward and it seemed to have no end; but his feet touched ground.

The ground was completely black and he did not know how much he had to stand on. His eyes shifted around with confusion. As he turned his body, his foot moved forward a bit. He did not know how or why, but as soon as he did, sections of the floor beneath him lit up and the black surface began to lift up from the ground and started flying into the air. Beneath was a new surface that produced a light of great radiance in the form of what looked like a glass mural. Kenji watched the ground rise up and vanish off into the distance in the form of birds as the circular floor was uncovered. The ground had a ring on the outside filled with colorful designs, but the inner circle was a black yellow background, the color of a sunrise.

What is this? Is this really a dream? If this is, then did I eat something bad to make this? "What is this? Where is this? How did I get here?" He crossed his arms. "This doesn't make any sense."

_Confused…?_

Kenji jumped and turned around when he heard a sudden voice. "Who…who's there?!"

_It is alright to be confused…_

_You have lived in ignorance all your life…_

_The blank ground you stand upon represents the emptiness in your life…_

Kenji raised an eyebrow. "Are you saying I'm…stupid?"

_It is now time to break free and open up to the universe around you…_

What in the word was this? Who is talking to him? He has never heard that voice before. "Who are you?"

_There is no time…you must now take the test…_

"Test?" Suddenly, three stone pillars appeared out of the ground in front of him. One of them had a sword hovering over it. The other held a shield. The last one held a staff.

_Which of these do you feel to be most valuable?_

_Which would you give up?_

This must be part of the test. Kenji approached the pillars and his eyes shifted across each one. These must represent something. He looked at the sword. 'This must represent strength. That's right.' he thought. Then he looked at the shield. If the sword was strength, then this one must be defense. And finally he put his attention on the staff that had a star on the end of it. Perhaps magic? Kenji looked back and forth at them. He must take one as his strength and give up one of them. "What will happen when I chose a certain pair?"

_It does not really matter; your weapon will be the same…_

Weapon?

_Choose…_

Kenji sighed and looked back at the sword. That wasn't his best quality. It was Saburo's. Then he looked back at the shield. His defense was pretty good. Then he looked at the staff. "Magic." Kenji walked up to it and took it in hand and looked down at it. Then it flashed into bright dust.

_You chose the path of magic casting…_

_What will you give up…?_

He knew what he was going to give up. He walked over to the sword and took it in hand. He didn't want strength. He would rather protect others than fight others. The sword turned into ash.

_You have given up the strength of a warrior…_

_Your path is set._

The pillars collapsed to the ground in pieces as the shield that remained faded_._ Behind him appeared a door. It looked well crafted and contained colorful glass patters on it. Behind it was nothing. The door seemed to lead to nowhere.He only stood and stared at it as he wondered what to do next.

_Go forth and continue your test…_

_Beyond this door, there is no light to protect you like you are now…_

Protected by light? Having been told to travel through the door, Kenji approached it and pulled it openand a bright light emitted through the crack and got brighter as the door was pulled open. Kenji walked into the light while holding his eyes closed. The light faded and he found himself still in the dark world he fell into. But the ground he stood on was different. This time, the inner circle had a picture in it. But the picture was simple and looked like a big black T; the same image that was on that girl's device. Coincidence? The outer ring was different too. The design on it looked like a train track. "She did say something about a train…" His first plan of action was to move forth on the mural.

_Your paths are connected…_

In the middle of the air, a ball of light appeared and started to float down towards Kenji. It stopped in front on him and hovered at shoulder level.

_Without the protection of light, you must fight…_

_Take your weapon…_

"This?" He hesitated at first, but he reached out and clenched the ball of light. Its energy shot out into two directions and solidified into a physical object. It looked like a key. "Is this the Keyblade?" He took time to examine it. It was rather small, about one yard in length. The handle was yellow and the blade was silver. Dangling from the bottom was a keychain with a strange figure on the end made of three circles. He gave it a swing. It had pretty decent weight to it, but light enough to be used by one hand.

As he was getting use to it, a small, black creature appeared before him. He stopped and observed it. The black creature was hunched over and swayed back and forth as it saw the world through big yellow eyes. "What in the world...?"

_The Darkness that exists in the hearts of all give birth to the Heartless…_

_They draw their power form darkness, but are weakened by light…_

Kenji crouched over and examined the shadowy creature as it stared back at him. He stood up and looked to the darkness around him while pointing to his head. "Are these guys alright in the head?"

…_it can be assumed that all Heartless operate with borderline retardation…_

_None of their actions are planned, just blindly executed…_

Kenji nodded. "Oh, alright."

_Look out!_

Kenji looked back at the Heartless as it leaped an incredible distance to get to Kenji. Kenji dodged with a back flip and the Heartless landed on the ground previously occupied by Kenji. But the attack was not over. The Heartless leaped again at Kenji, but this time, Kenji fought back. He took the keyblade in both hands and swung at the Heartless. The keyblade passed right through it with no resistance and cut it clean in two. The Heartless's body faded away into black smoke soon after. Kenji relaxed a little and stood up straight as he looked around to see the creature of darkness disappeared to somewhere else.

_Though the Heartless do not think on their own, they are still a threat…_

_The Keyblade is the most powerful weapon for combating these creatures…_

Kenji looked down at the magical weapon he carried. "I see…" Then he heard a light ringing sound. He looked up and saw small platforms of glass appear one at a time at the edge of the glass mural he stood on. They did not go straight upward; they turned a little to the right and came to the top of a tower far in the distance that had more murals around it. He did not know what was at the top, but he began to ascend the steps anyway. Each of them was held in place by some unseen force. He got a sense of how sturdy they were each time he stepped on one. Every so often he would stop to look over the edge of the steps at the empty floor or back at the platform with the large T.

Not even half way up this trail, Kenji began to hear music. It was produced by one instrument and did not sound too far off. It was a slow and relaxing tune and got louder when he ascended the steps. That's when he figured out that it was coming from the top of the tower at the end of this trail and quickened his pace. As he headed up the path he watched the top of the tower and as he got closer and closer to the top, he could see a person standing on top. He was standing alone near the edge of the platform atop the pillar and playing a red violin.

This man was wearing a simple outfit that consisted of a white, button up shirt with tan colored pants and a pair of high quality black dress shoes. On his left shoulder he held a violin and moved a stick with threads of some material over the strings of the instrument and it produced a soothing song. When Kenji finally got to the top, he walked slowly over to him while trying to be quiet enough to not interrupt him. The man played a note on his instrument and held it for a duration of time before lifting the stick off and bowing to his single audience member. Kenji did not know exactly what to do so he decided to clap for him.

The young man straightened his back and smiled and spoke in Japanese. "Thank you, Thank you. That was a one of a kind performance by Kurenai Wataru."

Kenji stopped. "That was great, but I don't think I've ever heard of you."

"As to be expected since I'm not from your world." he said. He put both parts of the violin together in one hand and it vanished into bright sparkles. He dropped his arms and put them both in his pockets. "Look around you Kenji." he said as he began to walk closer to him. "What you stand on right now symbolizes future events that will conspire in your life."

Kenji looked to the ground below him and observed the mural. There was a picture in the center made of bars that looked like a mask with the numbers 4 5 3 1 4 5 under it. Around the outside of the picture were circles with other individual symbols in them. Wataru stood within one that was in the shape of a bat. 'Does the bat mean something?' was one of the thoughts that crossed Kenji's mind. He looked up at Wataru. "What does this mean? Where is this place?"

"You are experiencing the Dive." he said. "It's an important test that only a hand full of individuals can take."

Kenji shook his head. "Why me?"

"Lineage I suppose."

Kenji crossed his arms. "Then who are you, exactly?"

"A guide."

Kenji looked around a bit more to see if there was something he was missing, but aside from the picture on the floor, everything was the same. "Then, this is a test?"

Wataru nodded. "Yes."

"What test?"

"The test of trust."

"Trust?"

"Yes." he said. Wataru turned to his right and began walking around the outer ring of the mural with Kenji standing in the middle. "When you go outside your usual boundaries, you will have to identify people that you have never seen in your life—never met, never exchanged words with—and identify them as being your friend or your foe."

"Is that it?"

"That is it."

"It sounds kinda simple."

"Yes, but it's difficult." He said and stopped back to his original position. "You will be put through these tests every day—every moment—in your life." He turned and faced Kenji. "Now, observe me and decide if I am your enemy or not."

Kenji looked at him for a moment and came to an answer. "You are not my enemy."

"A quick decision, what makes you think that?"

"You said you were a guide to help me through these tests."

Wataru was silent and sighed. "Damn, I did say that, didn't I?"

Kenji nodded.

Wataru looked to his left in a disappointed manner and back at Kenji. "What if my appearance is deceiving?"

"What do you mean?"

Wataru looked to the blackness above and called out. "Kivat, come!"

Kenji looked up as well and saw something small flying through the darkness down to them. It was a golden bat with large red eyes and a big mouth. "Yes, Wataru-sama!" Wataru reached up into the air and grabbed the night creature and brought it to his other hand, which it bit down on. The bite caused an eerie pattern to show up on Wataru, mostly around his neck and cheeks. Suddenly, chains appeared around his waist and wrapped themselves around him before transforming into a red belt with an empty space in front with a bar on top. Kenji had no idea what was going on and was quite set back by Wataru having the bat bite him.

Wataru pulled it off his arm and held the bat out so that it faced Kenji. "_Henshin_." he said, which was the Japanese word for transform, and put the bat upside down on the bar on the belt. The bat started sending off waves and Wataru's body began to transform into a suit of armor. The armor, once completed, was covered in chains and was reinforced around his chest, shoulders, and his right leg. His helmet had large golden eyes that looked like bat wings.

"What the—?" Was the only think Kenji could squeeze out of his mouth. Wataru crouched down, and launched himself at Kenji. Wataru came to a stop right in front of him and swiped the claws he gained at Kenji, which Kenji quickly dodged by pulling his head back. His other hand came around and Kenji dodged that as well. Then he put his palm up against the back of his arm to prevent his claws from coming around for a third strike. His other arm, however, came up from below and Kenji had to pull his arm back. Wataru swung his armed leg at Kenji and he pulled his head back to avoid it. Then he swung it at him again and again multiple times and forced Kenji to avoid them with back flips. But that method was made useless when he ended up at the edge of the platform.

Kenji watched how close he was to the edge and switched his attention back to Wataru, his large, intimidating eyes, staring at him. He was finished if he stayed where he was between Wataru and a possibly unpleasant fall to death. He changed his situation around when he ran at Wataru and rolled under his leg when he tried to kick him again. Kenji now had more space to move around. He turned and faced his opponent again with his fists up. "What's wrong Kenji? Don't you have a weapon?"

"Weapon?" That's right, the keyblade. Kenji opened his right hand and held it out, but nothing happened. "Where is it…?"

"What's wrong?" Wataru clenched his fist as he approached Kenji and swung it at him. Kenji ducked it and blocked the other one with his elbow. Then Wataru put his foot on Kenji's chest and swung the other foot up right into his jaw. Kenji flew off his feet and fell back onto the ground as Wataru flipped back onto his feet. "The keyblade doesn't just come; you have to call it with your heart. Call it, and it will come to you."

Kenji sat up and moved his tongue around in his mouth. It had filled with a small amount of blood. He turned his head to the ground and spat it up. "Call it?" He pushed himself up onto his feet and looked at his hand again. He needed to call it. Kenji put his hand out in front of him and cleared his mind off all thoughts other than the keyblade. He was dizzy from the blow, but continued to focus his mind. "…come…" From his efforts, a white light flashed from the palm of his hand and solidified into the magical weapon. He lifted it and examined it. It was the keyblade.

"Fight!" Wataru called out as he charged once again. Kenji dodged his attack and swung the keyblade down at him. The strike connected with his chest and Wataru grunted as noticeable damage was done to him. Wataru lost his balance for a split second, just enough time for Kenji to land another strike on him. Wataru quickly gained back his footing and swung at Kenji again with his fist. Kenji blocked it with the metal guard on the keyblade and kicked Wataru's chest, leaving him open and Kenji landed another strike on him. Wataru grunted and tried to flash kick Kenji. Kenji tossed the keyblade into the air and threw his body back onto his shoulder and hands. As soon as Wataru's kick was avoided, he pushed himself back onto his feet and knees right before catching the keyblade as it feel from above. Upon catching it, Kenji put his right leg out and turned his body to the left. He grabbed the handle of his weapon with both hands as he prepared for his next attack. Kenji swung his left foot around to the point where he was facing Wataru again and swung at him with all his strength. The attack struck against the armor on Wataru's chest and he flew off his feet and onto his shoulder.

Kenji relaxed his body and approached Wataru, who was panting from the blow. He looked up at him from behind the mask. "Finish me off."

Kenji shook his head and the keyblade vanished into light. "I know that you are not my enemy; I don't have to kill you." He leaned forward and offered his hand.

Wataru just stared at him for a second and nodded. "That's right Kenji, I am not." He took his hand and Kenji pulled him to his feet. He stood up and the armor that covered his body faded away after the bat on his belt let go and flew off. Wataru straightened his shirt and held his hands together behind his back. "You pass."

Kenji sighed with relief.

"Are you ready for the next test?" He extended his arm and motioned to his right.

Kenji looked in that direction and saw a door that did not stand there before. It must have appeared when his goal was obtained. Kenji looked back to Wataru and nodded. "I'm ready." Kenji walked to the door and opened it up. Like the other one, a bright light emitted from it on the other side. Kenji walked in without a second thought. Wataru followed him in shortly after and Kivat followed him.

On the other side was another floor mural. Like the other one, it had circles all along the outer rim within a pattern that looked like chattered glass. The inner circle was a large, yellow face with a strange smile and a fin sticking out of its head to the left. The circles on the outer rim did not have emblems like the last one; instead, it had faces of people that Kenji has never seen before. "Why do these people show up here, even if I've never seen them in my life?"

Wataru stood side by side with Kenji. "That question is like asking what the heart in everyone truly is. It is something that cannot be explained." Wataru stepped forward and turned to Kenji. "What we do know is that the heart already holds events predetermined by fate."

Kenji didn't get it. "Some guide you are." How could his heart know what is going to happen already? How could it know that he will see these people? It does not make sense. Kenji put the thought of trying to come to a solution aside and focused on the tests. "What is this test?"

"The Test of Friendship." he stated. "Now that you know who your friends and foes are, you must learn to cooperate with them as a team."

How does this mural represent that? How did the previous one represent trust? Will he learn eventually? He'll have to be patient if he wanted to find these answers. "I see, so you and I will be fighting together then?"

Wataru nodded. "That would be correct." Kenji and Wataru were quickly surrounded by the Heartless creatures, but these ones were different than the ones that Kenji battled against when he started the Dive. They stood more erect and had a sharper appearance. "It appears to have begun."

Kenji and Wataru went back to back in the center as eight of these new Heartless surrounded them. "They're different; does that mean that they have different abilities?"

Wataru nodded. "Get ready." He held his hand up and snatched the golden bat out of the air again and used it to transform in the same manor as before. Kenji armed himself with the keyblade immediately after.

Seeing their targets armed, the Heartless reacted. Every other Heartless in the circle reached out and grabbed the one to their right. These selected Heartless started to transform and took the form of a sword, an axe, a scythe, and a spear. "They can transform into weapons?" The Heartless charged at the two warriors at the same time. Wataru was attacked by the axe wielder and the scythe wielder. Wataru front flipped over a slice at his legs from the scythe and dodge the large axe with ease before striking back with a tornado kick. Kenji avoided getting run through with the spear numerous times before swiping out the feet of his attacker and engaging the one that wielded the sword.

Wataru seemed to be performing against his opponents with no struggle at all. When the axe wielder attacked him again, he was able to avoid the attack with ease. But he was unprepared for the next attack. When the Heartless missed with its attack, knowing very well that it could not attack immediately after with a big weapon, the axe transformed back into a Heartless and its user turned into an axe for it. This change allowed an instant, unseen thrust to Wataru's chest with the tip of the axe. "Ah!" Wataru lost his footing and fell backwards.

Hearing Wataru, Kenji turned away from his current predicament to see Wataru having problems. "Wataru!" He quickly brought his attention back to the fight just in time to avoid the sword wielder's attack. The sword and its user used the same technique on him and switched roles and almost landed a hit on Kenji. Kenji was able to parry it and protect himself from the thrusts of the spear Heartless. Then the spear Heartless and its user also changed and the new user swiped its weapon at Kenji's legs and toppling him over. Its second attack was a stab, but Kenji rolled out of the way and got back to his feet with a kick up. He and Wataru were quickly back to back again. "What the hell, we're losing to these guys and I was told they were slightly retarded."

"It's an excellent partnership." he said. "They can all transform into weapons and be used by each other and visa versa." Wataru shifted his head around to keep an eye on the enemy's movements. "Coordinating their attacks like this make them unpredictable."

"You said this was the Test of Friendship, right?" Kenji remembered. "Then we should also coordinate our attacks as a team."

Wataru nodded. "Yes, we should."

Without warning, the scythe wielding Heartless swung for Wataru's head. Wataru ducked to avoid decapitation. As soon as he did, Kenji rolled over his back and thrusted his foot out at the Heartless. The dark minion was tossed back from the blow easily. The next attacker swung its sword around wildly as it charged at the two warriors. Kenji used his keyblade to block its sword and pulled it to the side giving Wataru an opening to kick the Heartless down. The axe wielding Heartless bought its axe up over its head for a drop on Wataru, but Wataru quickly swept his leg under the Heartless's feet and it toppled over from the weight of its weapon. Then Kenji jumped on top of it and plunged his keyblade into its chest. The creature evaporated into black mist. The axe transformed back into its Heartless form and was quickly destroyed by Wataru's claws. "I must say, we make an excellent team." he commented.

Kenji nodded. The other Heartless got ready to attack Wataru and Kenji stood their ground as the Heartless closed in. The spear wielder attacked first by charging in with its spear pointed at them. Wataru got low enough to clear the tip of the spear and swiped the feet of the Heartless. The Heartless flew over him and transformed into a spear just as the spear turned into a Heartless. The Heartless landed on its feet and swung at Wataru, but Kenji protected him with his keyblade. Wataru got back to his feet and tore through the Heartless with his claws. The spear became a Heartless again and got decapitated. The remaining four Heartless, two weapons, and two users, moved in for the kill. The scythe user made a swing for Kenji first. However, Kenji saw it coming and put his hand out at the Heartless. "Fire!" The command launched a fire ball from Kenji's hand and it exploded once it came in contact with the Heartless, destroying it. The scythe quickly turned back into a Heartless and ran over to the sword wielder where it transformed into a second sword for it to use. Now having two swords, the Heartless ran at Kenji and Wataru wildly as it swung around its weapons.

Wataru avoided its rampage and rolled off to the side. "Let's get this one with one shot; all's you have to do is distract him."

Kenji nodded. He watched the Heartless run over to him and quickly defended against its attacks before leaping over it and running to the other end of the battlefield. Once he had enough distance, he threw his keyblade at the Heartless. The weapon struck it and dazed it. Wataru took this chance to complete the plan. He leaped into the air and came down at the Heartless with his right leg out. When he hit the Heartless with his attack, it exploded along with its weapons. Kenji covered his face when the heat of the explosion caught up to him. As it faded, Kenji pulled down his arm to see Wataru casually walking over to him unharmed and out of his armor. "Are they gone?"

Wataru nodded. "Yes, the test is complete." Wataru crossed his arms. "I had no idea you had control over elemental magic."

Kenji nodded. "My father taught me three of the four levels of magic."

"Your father must be a master of the art." He looked to his right. Kenji's eyes followed and he saw another door had appeared. "Shall we?"

"Yeah." said Kenji. It'd not that he was in a rush to complete these challenges; he wanted to see what the next mural would tell him about his possible future. Kenji opened the door and walked into the light without hesitation. Following behind him was Wataru and Kivat in the same order as before.

On the other side was a new mural. This one did not have circles around the outer ring. Instead, it had a golden pattern of arches. In the inner circle, was a strange red emblem in three sections. Around the emblem were six circles, each one with a picture of more unfamiliar faces. Kenji walked out into the center and turned about to talk to Wataru. "Which test is this?"

Wataru walked around with his eyes on the ground. "The Fate Test, perhaps one of the most difficult tests depending on the one who takes it." Wataru stopped. "Do you know what fate is?"

Kenji nodded. "According to a book I read: Fate is the inevitable outcome that has already been set in time. It is something that is destined to happen."

Wataru nodded. "I couldn't think of a better way to word it." He started walking again. "Some say we are all guided by fate, some believe we make our own future." Wataru stopped again and faced Kenji. "Fate is what guides people together, people you have never met and people who are familiar to you." He watched Kenji to see if he had something to say. "What would you do with fate?"

"Huh?" Suddenly, in front of Kenji, a transparent figure appeared before him and started to quickly solidify. Once fully developed, Kenji recognized this person as his sister. "Hana?" Hana just stood in place with her head hung slightly. "Hana, are you okay?" He grabbed her hand shook her a little. Hana pulled her head up and looked at him with an expressionless face. "What's wrong?"

"That is not your sister, Kenji." Wataru said. "It's an illusion representing your sister." Wataru stood next to her. "Kenji, say if you went on a grand journey and you got separated from your sister, and you reunite with her once again just to fight her to the death, could you do it?"

Fight Hana? Is he serious? This question was shocking. Kenji was unable to answer right away as he thought of the possibility of such a thing happening. Hana was his sister and the closest person to him. Is this what he means by fate? Kenji looked at Hana again and back at Wataru. "No."

Wataru closed his eyes and nodded. "I see." Then Hana began to move. She lifted her right hand slightly and a ball of light appeared in it which transformed into a keyblade. It was more intricate and elegant than the one Kenji was using and was pure white. Hana took the weapon in both hands and launched herself at Kenji. With shock, Kenji stepped back and put his arms up to protect himself from the blow, but as soon as the edge of the keyblade came in contact with him, it evaporated into mist along with the apparition of Hana. Kenji brought his hands down and looked around as soon as Hana vanished. In his search, his eyes were caught by another door. "Let's go now." Wataru began walking to the door.

"Wait, Wataru!"

Wataru halted and looked back at Kenji. "What is it?"

"Did I…did I pass the test?"

Wataru was silent. "I don't know." With that, he opened the door and headed in ahead of Kenji.

Kenji was not too enthusiastic to go through it this time, not after this test. Regardless, he continued onward and passed into the light. As soon as the light faded, he was standing upon another mural, but something about this one was different. Kenji looked down to examine it. This one was smaller than the others and was asymmetrical. The outer ring was white on one half and the other was gold with a triangle pattern on it. The center was a similar story. One side was dark blue had an arrow pointing in the direction of the blank ring. The other side had a cross pointing at the other side of the ring. Both of these symbols were joined in the center by a single ring.

Kenji had seen these symbols before, but not joined together like this. The arrow was the sign of the male gender and the cross was the sign of the female gender. What this mural represented he did not know. "What is this one, Wataru" Kenji looked around and found Wataru to be missing. "Wataru?" He shifted his eyes around and repeatedly called his name. "Wataru!" He was no where to be found. The door that brought him there had also vanished. When he knew he was alone, Kenji started to get a strange feeling from the area around him, like he was not alone, like he was being watched. Kenji stood in one place and slowed his breathing to try and hear something. He heard footsteps. They were faint, like the sound of someone using the light step technique from ninjitsu arts. With this Kenji knew for sure that some one was there with him, and was walking right behind him.

Kenji spun around just in time to catch someone swinging at him with a long object. Kenji avoided it with a back hand spring and stood his ground with both fists up. He was now able to get a good look at his attacker. To his surprise, it was a girl, one he had never seen before, yet seemed familiar. She was dressed in the same way as Kenji, pants, shirt, and jacket and her bangs were pulled over her right eye. What was really strange was that her weapon was a keyblade, the same as Kenji. "Who are you…?"

She did not answer. She clicked her tongue and attacked him again. She swung at Kenji and he dodged it as easily as he did the second one. She got down and swiped her leg at Kenji's feet, which he quickly avoided, then she leaped into the air and attacked with a tornado kick. Kenji put his arms to block the blow and fell down onto his back. He quickly got back to his feet with a twist up and called his keyblade to his hand, which he held out behind him. The mysterious girl held her weapon in front of her with the blade resting on her other arm. That's when he knew what style of swordsmanship she was using. It was a broad sword style, the same that he was about to use. Kenji quickly switched to a style used for a katana and she switched to the same style as well. This was confusing to Kenji as well as the girl. She clicked her tongue again in annoyance and switched back to the broad sword style.

Kenji kept with his style as she attacked him. The girl leaped at him and swung her keyblade down at him. Kenji brought his up and blocked the attack. Her next attack was quick. She spun around and, with her left hand, slashed for his left shoulder, which was blocked as well. She gabbed the keyblade with her right again and she made two horizontal strikes at him from her left and right. Kenji defended against both of these as he kept his movement to a minimal. The girl pulled the keyblade around her before striking again and did so a second time. She was fast and she was only getting faster. The girl spun her body around and swung at Kenji again horizontally. Kenji threw his body back onto the ground to avoid it and got back up with a kick up just in time to defend himself for the next strike. At this point, Kenji believed it was time to go on the offensive.

He pushed her keyblade out of the way and swung down at her. She moved to the right to avoid it and defended against Kenji's swing to her right shoulder. Kenji started advancing as he alternated his attacks, which she was able to defend herself from all of them with her quick and elegant maneuvers. Kenji stopped moving forward and stabbed for her torso. His keyblade was easily pushed aside by hers and, using the same momentum to push Kenji's weapon aside, she brought her weapon around and above her head to bring down on him. Aware of her next attack, Kenji got down on one knee, put his keyblade up, and blocked the strike. Then he pushed it up with his leaving the girl wide open. But instead of striking her, Kenji used a tornado kick to hit her keyblade out of her hand. Now that she was disarmed, Kenji ran at her as if he was about to kick her, but went straight into a gainer instead. The girl fell for his trick, stumbled backwards, and fell on her rear.

Kenji relaxed himself when he had ensured victory and slowed his breathing. He looked down at the panting girl who looked at him with disappointment and defeat. She was obviously a sore loser. Kenji began to approach her to ask some questions, but he stopped when the corner of his eye caught a new door. When he was distracted, the girl scrambled to her feet and ran for it. "Hey, wait!" he called. The girl ran to the door, threw it open, and ran into the light it emitted. "Hold it!" Kenji ran after her though the door and came out the other side to anther mural platform with Wataru standing there patiently. "W-Wataru?"

"What?"

"Were you waiting for me?"

"For a second."

"A second?" No, that cannot be right; he must have been separated for at least five minutes. "Are you sure?"

"Yes, why?"

"I…didn't we just get separated?" Wataru and Kivat exchanged expressions in confusion. They looked back at Kenji and shook their heads. "Are you sure?" They nodded. Kenji started to scratch his head trying to figure this out. They were separated, but to Wataru, he was right behind them. A paradox? Unable to come to a conclusion, Kenji dropped the subject off his mind. "Never mind, what's the next test?"

"The Test of Sins."

Kenji looked down at the mural. The center of it had a large red C in it and behind it were many beautiful blue flowers. This mural had no outer ring this time. What it did have was a pattern of triangles all around the edge pointing towards the center. "The Test of Sins?" he asked. "Is there going to be any fighting? Because I'm pretty warn out from the few seconds it took me to pass through that door."

"I don't think you need to worry." Wataru put his hands in his pockets. "In this test, you will learn about forgiveness for one's sins."

"I will learn forgiveness?"

Wataru nodded. Then, right in front of Kenji, another person began to appear. This person solidified at the same rate as Hana did in the last test. Kenji recognized this person as Saburo, his brother. "…Saburo…"

Wataru walked up next toe Kenji. "Let me create a scenario for you." He said looking to the illusion. "What if Saburo killed your entire family by his own will for the sake of someone else, would you forgive him?"

Kenji looked at the fake Saburo as it stared back at him. This was an easy one for him to answer. Just from the scenario that Wataru laid out for him, he could come to a quick decision. "No." Just as he said that, the illusion of his brother turned into ash and blew away into the nothingness around them.

"Congratulations, you passed." Wataru patted him on the back. Then he indicated with his hand that a new door had appeared. "Go forth, to your final test."

Without a word, Kenji approached the door. When he stood in front of it, he began to examine it. It was just like all of the other doors they passed through, yet this one marked the end of his test. He reached out for the handle, but paused and turned around to see Wataru taking out his violin and placing it on his shoulder. "Wataru, what are you doing?"

Wataru looked up at Kenji. "I'm not coming with you. Your final test must be taken alone." he said. "I will stay here and produce wonderful music as a way of cheering you on."

"But…" Wataru was right; he has to do this alone. But there were so many questions he wanted to ask Wataru. But it appears that he could only ask one now. And the one thing that was on his mind the most was the form that he took every time he went into battle. "Who exactly are you?"

Wataru smiled. "I am Kamen Rider Kiva."

Kenji nodded. "Thanks you, Wataru."

"Until our paths cross again, Kenji Ishikawa. Just remember: even in the deepest Darkness, there will always be Light." Wataru looked down at his instrument, closed his eyes, and began to play an excellent tune; soothing and breath taking.

"Yes Wataru-sama, play that wonderful tune!" commented Kivat as he flew circles around Wataru and went up and down to the notes he played.

Kenji smiled and opened the door. Without looking back, he passed into the light and continued to his final test. As soon as the light faded, so did Wataru's music. Kenji found himself alone again on a new mural. Not having Wataru around was disappointing. It was the longest conversation he has had in Japanese in a long time. Now he was one his own. Kenji walked forward and looked down at the new mural. The outer ring had four circles spread out evenly around it; each had an image of a single person. Again, Kenji had no idea who these people were. But what confused him the most was the inner circle. The circle contained what looked like the silhouette of a girl with a yellow ribbon in her hair. Next to this image were the letters: SOS. What does this mean? Wataru had told him that each mural meant something, but this one was down right confusing. "This is weird…"

Kenji looked around and found nothing around him. He looked behind him to make sure that the girl from before was not back to finish the job. He was alone this time. With nothing else to do, Kenji took a step forward and felt the ground move. He quickly jumped back and looked down. The ground was moving, not the whole ground, just the dark silhouette. It was shifting and began to rise up from the surface. Kenji took as many steps back as it took to get him off the black area as it rose up and began to take shape into the form of a dragon. The crouching dragon was enormous and looked like a giant shadow. The head of this dark creature looked downward and opened its large yellow eyes at Kenji. Seeing him, the dragon opened its mouth and roared at him. The gust of wind felt like it would blow him off the edge of the mural, at least it had no smell. The dragon tried to stand up on its back legs, but could not because its entire body was being held down by chains. Out of rage, it let lose a blast of golden flames at Kenji. Kenji quickly jumped out of the path of the fire just in time as it shot off into the distance.

The dragon began to twist and turn and push and pull as it pulled itself against the strength of the chains. After much struggle, the chains began to break one by one and the dragon was able to get up onto its feet. After setting itself free, the dragon threw its head into the air, spread its wings, and roared. Kenji quickly called upon his keyblade and ran after it. He jumped at the large creature and sliced into its chest. The damage was noticeable and the creature roared with pain. It turned its attention to Kenji and began stomping around with its feet. Kenji rolled out of the way of each step and sliced at the legs of the creature as he did. Those he was doing damage to the dragon, it did not seem to be enough. He quickly got out from under it and held his keyblade out, ready for the next attack.

The dragon's eyes finally spotted him and whipped its tail around. Kenji did not react in time to avoid it, when it hit him he grabbed onto it as it pulled him over the edge. In his struggle to keep himself on the tail, Kenji dropped his keyblade into the dark abyss below. "No…" The dragon tossed Kenji to the ground and growled in his face. Kenji brought his foot up and kicked it in the face, which just irritated it more. The dragon pulled its head back and started stabbing at the ground with the tip of its tail at Kenji. Kenji quickly rolled out of the way of each time it stabbed at him and scrambled to his feet to get under the belly of the ferocious creature.

At this point, the situation seemed hopeless. He had lost the keyblade and this dragon was too strong. Then he remembered what Wataru said to him: 'Call it, and it will come to you.' Kenji reached his hand out and called to the keyblade, believing it will come to him after falling such a distance. His calls were answered, because his keyblade returned to his hand in a flash of light. "Alright!" Kenji ran out from below the dragon, ran over to the tail, and sliced off the bladed tip. The dragon roared from the loss and spotted Kenji again. It turned to him and fire out more fire from its mouth. "Aeroga!" Kenji cast a barrier of violently twisting winds over him and they successfully pushed the flames aside as he ran straight at the dragon's head. Kenji leaped into the air out of the storm of flames and landed on the Dragon's head. The dragon started throwing its head around as Kenji held on to one of the horns on its head, this time keeping his keyblade tight in his grasp. The dragon spread its wings and began to take flight with Kenji still holding on. Having had enough of this, Kenji pointed the tip of his keyblade at the head of the dragon and plunged it in. The dragon let out its final roar and flew straight down and crashed onto the mural.

Kenji rolled off the beast and laid himself sprawled out on the ground as he caught his breath. He turned his head to the dragon as it began to fade away like a shadow. As soon it was gone, Kenji relaxed and looked up into the black sky. "So…what do I do now?" Kenji sat up and looked around for doors, but there were none. What he did see, was a girl standing on the opposite side of the mural with her back to him. Kenji got to his feet and slowly started to approach her. She was wearing absolutely nothing. "Hey, are you…" Suddenly, he heard a cracking sound. Kenji looked down at his feet and saw a crack in the mural and it was getting bigger very quickly. Kenji looked back up to the girl and decided to run for her. "Hey! Watch out…!" Then the floor below him completely shattered and he fell through. The fall was fast and there was nothing for him to grab onto. This was the same feeling he had when he first entered this world. Remembering this, he closed his eyes and the falling slowed down.

Kenji opened his eyes and found himself in his bed in his room. He sat up and looked around to find nothing out of place. He put his hand in his palm. "What a dream…" He looked back at his bed and saw something red on his pillow. It was blood, the blood he coughed up in his fight against Wataru. "It wasn't a dream?" He looked around to find anything else that could be used to tell him that what he experienced was real, other than the blood stain and his sore muscles. Nothing was found. He shrugged and looked over to the closed window to see the light of day shining through the shutter. "It's morning…"


	4. Chapter 3

KINGDOM HEARTS

LIMITLESS UNIVERSE:

THE BEGINNING

CHAPTER THREE: FOR WHAT IS TO COME

The taste of blood has left his mouth as soon as he had eaten food. The entire time he sat at the table it was silent. No one wanted to say anything. For Kenji, it was because his father was disappointed in him and his brother. Hana was almost always silent and would often only speak when spoken to. Saburo's reasons for keeping quiet were unknown to Kenji. Kenji and Saburo were set to be punished today for going off on their own. Kenji wanted to contemplate what the punishment could be, but the dream he had last night failed to leave his thoughts.

When he usually has a dream, he could only remember bits and pieces of it because they were only fabricated images. But he remembered everything from last night, like it really happened. In fact, the dream filled him with so many questions that he wanted to ask his father. In his dream, he had the keyblade, which was a real weapon his father utilized in the past; so does that mean that Wataru, the Heartless, and the Kamen Rider are all real as well? He had to know. "Father?"

"What?" he replied with little concern and without looking up from his meal.

"What is a Kamen Rider?"

Hana and Saburo both glanced at him, but his father remained unconcerned by the question. Without answering, he put his chopsticks on the rim of his bow and stood up. "You and Saburo will meet me outside when you are done eating. Bring your carving knife." With that he left the room leaving the three siblings alone.

There was silence for a second until Saburo spoke up. "What's with that question?"

"I don't know…" said Kenji. "I just heard it from somewhere."

"In a dream?"

Kenji was surprised from Saburo because he knew about the source of the question. "How did…?"

"You're not alone there." he said as he poured his drink down his throat from the saucer he held. "I had a weird dream last night too." he started. "And this so called Kamen Rider thing showed up in it too." Saburo grabbed the pouring cup from the center of the table and poured more of it into his saucer. "Some guy named Kotaro Minami."

"Kotaro?" In Kenji's dream, a man named Wataru Kurenai was the Kamen Rider. Was there more? "What are these dreams we're having?"

"We must have sniffed up something in the city and it caused our heads to go insane." explained Saburo before putting some rice in his mouth.

Kenji looked at Saburo for a moment and noticed something shiny in his ear. It was a ring. "Saburo, what the hell is that?"

Saburo looked up. "What?"

"That thing in your ear!"

Saburo reached his hand up and grabbed it. "Oh, that? I got that in that weird shop. Everyone else seemed to have them."

"Why would someone want to put a hole in their ears?"

"Ask Hana, she has them."

Kenji looked at Hana in disbelief and she looked at him. She pulled her hair back behind her right ear to display a small blue orb sitting on her ear. His jaw dropped a bit. "You have been to the city too?" She nodded lightly. "Why?"

"Martial arts tournament."

Kenji sighed. "Why is it that all of you guys have been to the city once before and last night was my first?"

"Cuz' you're a pussy?" answered Saburo. Kenji brought his hand up and erected his middle finger. "What does that mean?"

"I don't know, I just saw some guy in the city give it to someone he was yelling at." he said dropping his hand. "I think it's something bad."

"I'll keep that in mind."

Some time later, Kenji and Saburo finished eating and left to go outside where their father was after they brought along their carving knifes. Zeta was sitting on the back porch of their house and staring at the wildlife in their pond where water poured in from a small waterfall. Kenji and Saburo both stood in front of him and kneeled down. Their father took his mind off the pond and brought it to his sons. "You two left our grounds to go to the city which I have told you is forbidden. Therefore, you will both have to suffer the consequences." Neither of the twin boys spoke up to defend their reasons for going because they had no good excuse. He started to explain their punishment. "Both of you will have to go into the forest and cut a branch off the strongest tree you find. Then you will carve a bokken from it and bring it back here." A bokken was a wooden sword used for practice. Both Kenji and Saburo learned how to use a sword with them and they were also taught how to make them.

'Was that it?' Kenji thought. He believed that their punishment would be much worse. There had to be more to it, but he did not ask. Kenji and Saburo nodded in acknowledgment of their assignments and left for the forest that grew on their land. Saburo and Kenji traveled deep into the thick forest together. Kenji, still curious about the dream, spoke up. "What do you think the dream meant?"

"Forget about the dream, Kenji." said Saburo. "It's just a dream."

"Yeah but yours was very similar to mine and I don't think it's by coincidence."

"Hey." he said. "We'll worry about it later." Kenji shrugged. "Right now we have something to do." Saburo looked around a bit and back to Kenji. "Let's split up now, it doesn't make sense for both of us to cut a sword from the same tree."

Kenji nodded. "Okay." Kenji turned his back to Saburo and Saburo did the same as they went their separate ways. The forest was peaceful and calming, unlike the city which was rowdy and rather irritating. Perhaps he preferred the forest more. It was the place he was most familiar with and that's probably the reason he felt more secure here. In the forest he knew exactly where he was and if he continued to progress forward he would eventually come to a freshwater stream. The thought of the running water made him thirsty. He quickly found the clearing where the water ran in the direction of his house and approached the edge. He kneeled down next to it and filled his hands with water before putting them to his mouth and taking down the liquids. The thoughts about the dream were leaving. Kenji threw his head back and exhaled as he looked up at the clear sky.

He took a seat in the sand and looked around. He had no time limit to get a bokken carved, so he thought he would idle for a bit to collect his thoughts on other things like his mother. He still had no idea as to who she was or even what her name was and nothing he had experienced lately had given him any clues. It seemed to him that the mother he never knew would always be a mystery to him. Perhaps if he tried hard enough, he could pry some information out of his father. But he could not see him until he completes his task. "That's what I'll do." Now with some determination, Kenji gets to his feet and continues his search for a strong, healthy tree in which to create his weapon.

He remembers seeing very large tree once before that sat near the river he drank from. Perhaps he will make a bokken from that tree. With his target set, he traversed through the woods on a dirt path that had been produced from years of walking through the underbrush. As he did he stuck near the river and used it to guide him. Kenji quickly stopped when he heard a branch snap near him. He looked around the area for movement as he did. "Saburo, is that you?" There was no answer, sounds, nor movement. He paid no more mind to it and continued.

It was not long after did he finally reach his destination. The large tree that he had seen before was even larger than he remembered. The trunk must have been ten feet in diameter and it reached far up above all of the other trees. The branches extended out for probably fifty feet in each direction. What was also amazing was the large mess of roots that the trunk of the tree sat upon. A large number of them were easily bigger than Kenji. Also, pouring out from under the tree and through the massive roots, was the stream of water than he had followed to get to it, but it looked as if the tree was the very thing that produced this stream because there was nothing on the other side that suggests that the stream passes under it. It was an amazing sight. Kenji examined the massive structure of the tree in awe as he walked around the grounds right where the roots come up from the earth.

There was something magical about this natural structure that seemed captivating to him. But this moment of admiration was broken when something on the tree moved in the shadows. Kenji stopped and got a better glimpse of what he was seeing. The moving figure moved across the roots of the tree and pulled itself off the surface of the massive organic structure and became a small humanoid creature with large yellow eyes. That's when Kenji could not believe what he was seeing. This small creature of darkness was a Heartless, like the ones he saw in his dream. "That's not possible!" The Heartless was crawling up the roots and heading up the trunk of the tree.

Kenji quickly put his foot on a stable place on the trunk and used it to propel himself into the air. He landed on the higher roots and located the Heartless. He crouched down, put his right foot out, and swept the feet of the small creature. The Heartless fell onto its back and sprawled to its feet as Kenji got into fighting posture. The shadowy spawn leaped at Kenji. Kenji leaped as well and struck it with a spin kick. It hit the tree and landed back on the roots. Kenji clenched his fist and swung it down at the Heartless, but it shrank into the shadows and his fist slammed into the roots. He grunted and watched as the Heartless crawled under his feet in the shadows.

The Heartless returned to a physical state right behind him and prepared for its attack, but the roots below moved and constricted around its feet. Kenji turned around to see the small creature struggle to free itself as a branch from the tree came down and whipped it in the head. Kenji was half amazed to see the tree moving and defending him, but now was his chance. He raised his foot and brought it down on top of the Heartless's head, crushing it, and it turned into black smoke in the wind. Kenji sighed with relief and relaxed as the roots of the trees did. He turned and sat down on the roots. How did something like that come out of his dream? Was his dream more than just a dream? Wataru said that his dream was like a message or a preview of events yet to come. Were those events drawing near? This was all too strange for him.

His concentration broke when he heard something crack. He looked up to locate the source and a branch fell from above and landed before his feet. He jumped back a bit thinking it would land on him. The branch was long, thick, and healthy; perfect for cutting a bokken out of it. But why would a healthy branch like the one before him suddenly break? That was a question he paid no mind to. Instead, he crouched down next to it, pulled out his carving knife, and got to work on the branch as he carved away the surface.

About an hour later, Kenji immerged from the forest and set foot onto the grass in the back of his house with his weapon in hand. Waiting for him was his father, his sister, and his brother. His father sat on the wooden deck attached to the house with Hana standing behind him. Saburo was standing on the grass with his bokken on his shoulder. His was just like Kenji's bokken. It had a round, 12 inch handle with a blunted sword edge. "What took you so long?"

Kenji looked at Saburo. "Had to find the right tree." he responded.

He and Saburo approached their father and stood juxtaposed in front of him. "Show me." Saburo and Kenji both presented their wooden swords and he examined them. The examination was quick and he nodded. "Take ten paces back and face each other from a distance of two yards." Kenji and Saburo were a bit confused, but they carried out the command without question. "Now, with your weapons, fight each other until one is unable to fight back."

Both of them twisted their heads to their father with shock. "What?"

"Do not make me repeat myself."

Saburo snickered. "I see how it is, we were sent to forge our own tools of punishment and utilize them on one another. Cleaver."

Kenji shrugged. He really wanted to tell his father about the Heartless he encountered, but his father might see it as an excuse. "We don't have a choice, do we?"

Saburo shook his head. His eyes shifted to their father and Kenji did the same. When Kenji got distracted, Saburo raised his bokken and charged at Kenji. Kenji quickly regained his focus and defended himself with his own. Saburo's strikes were not very fast, but they had strength and precision. Each blow would have been very painful if they had connected. Kenji took a few steps back and took the stance for kendo swordsmanship. Saburo took a different stance for the same style and they both started waling around in a circle as they faced each other, waiting for the next move.

Saburo was quick to make the next move; he threw himself into a butterfly twist before swinging down at Kenji. Kenji blocked it. Finding an opening, Kenji swung his sword down behind Saburo's knee and struck it. Saburo grunted and swung at Kenji. He guarded against it easily. Saburo turned around and threw his leg out at Kenji. Kenji ducked in time. Then, he leaped up and swung at Saburo with his leg the same time Saburo went for a sweep kick. Both of them missed. But, using the momentum from the spin and keeping his bokken close to his chest with the tip out in front, Kenji turned around and, as soon as he saw Saburo, thrusted at his weapon at him. However, Saburo predicted this oncoming attack and pushed it to his left with his bokken. Now that he had an opening, Saburo turned to his right, swung his leg out, hooked it around Kenji's head, and pulled him to the ground. Saburo raised his weapon over his head and swung down at Kenji. Kenji reacted just in time and guarded with his bokken. Saburo pulled his weapon back and gained distance with a back flip as soon as Kenji used a kick up to get to his feet.

Kenji put both hands back onto his weapons as he readied for oncoming attacks. At this point, he knew that Saburo did not plan on holding back in this fight. He planned to go all out. Saburo put his wooden sword on his shoulder. "You don't seem to be all there, bro."

"I didn't think you'd take this seriously."

"What made you think that?"

"I don't know." Kenji started running at Saburo. Saburo got ready to swing at him horizontally, but as soon as he got in front of Saburo, he leaped right over him with a front flip and Saburo's swing missed. Kenji landed on his feet behind him and spun around with his bokken in reverse hand hold. Saburo anticipated this next attack and put his sword on his back to protect himself from the blow. Kenji turned his body again for another swing and Saburo blocked that as well. He swept for Saburo's feet, but Saburo threw himself backwards onto his back and threw himself back up with a kick up. As soon as Saburo was on his feet, Kenji put one foot on his chest, pulled the other one up and kicked him. Saburo was thrown back, but he managed to keep his footing.

Saburo exhaled and looked down at his bokken. The edge was full of cracks and notches. The tree Kenji used was obviously superior. Then he quickly formulated a plan. Saburo looked at Kenji and threw his bokken at him. Kenji put his hand up and launched a fire spell at it. The collision made the bokken explode into splinters and dust. Saburo bursted out from behind the cloud and, with a gainer, kicked Kenji's bokken out of his hands and into the air. Saburo reacted sooner to obtain it. He put his foot on Kenji's chest and used him as a step to get higher. Then he put his other foot on him and launched himself off his brother and grabbed the wooden sword before going into a back flip. With Kenji still unbalanced, Saburo pulled the sword up and swung down on Kenji's shoulder. The pain from the blow shot right through his body and he collapsed to the ground.

Kenji was dizzy from the pain, but managed to bring his head up and look at their spectators. His father watched on emotionlessly. His sister, on the other hand, closed her eyes and turned away. Saburo stood next to Kenji. "This is an impressive bokken." He said. "I don't know what kind of tree you cut it from, but it made the one I cut from an oak tree seem like a child's toy."

Kenji was panting. "Saburo…can we stop now…?"

Saburo looked down at him. "You heard father, we have to fight until one of us is unable to fight back." he said. "That means unconscious."

Kenji does not remember what happened after that, the only thing he remembers was waking up in his bed with his whole body sore with scrapes and bruises. He looked around his room to find no one around and nothing out of place like he did this morning. The only thing that was different was that his bokken was sitting in the corner of his room next to the door. He sighed and looked away from the same weapon that put him in this condition. He lay still so he would not feel any pain, but that plan was cut short when his door opened and Hana came into the room with a bowel in her hands. Kenji turned and watched her as she approached his bed and kneeled down as she placed the bowel of water on the ground. Hana reached in and pulled out a towel which she twisted and drained the water from it. She placed it on Kenji's head started wiping the sweat off his head. "I'm fine, Hana." he said and sat up. He felt pain shoot through his shoulder as he did.

"Are you sure?"

"Yeah."

Hana pulled her hand away and put the towel in the bowel. "Father wishes to see you then." she said and she stood up and left the room.

She never has very much to say was the thought that Kenji formulated from that experience. In fact, it was formulated from all of his experiences with her. Sometimes, his sister gave him the creeps. Kenji forced himself out of his bed and up onto his feet even though his head throbbed like crazy. He had a good idea where they were going to meet. Kenji left his room and headed down to the family shrine at the heard of the house. Waiting there was his father and his brother. His father sat with his back to the wall which contained a small shrine that sat in the wall. Saburo sat across from him. Kenji walked in, doing his best to keep good posture as he sat down next to Saburo. Zeta, their father, nodded and pulled out two, small black boxes which he placed in front of him. "You two have both experienced the Dive, correct?"

How did he know what that dream was called? He recalls Wataru telling him that his dream was known as the Dive. Has his father gone through the same thing? "Yes." he answered.

"Yes." answered Saburo.

Zeta nodded. "Then you two are ready." He put a black box before each of the twin boys.

Kenji and Saburo bowed as they accepted them. Kenji and Saburo opened their boxes to find a deck of cards inside. Kenji pulled one out. On the back was a heart in the center of it with designs above and below them. On the other side was another heard with, what looks like a blank scroll in front of it. "What are these?"

"Shuffle Cards." answered their father. "They are very powerful items that have the ability to harness the power or essence of something. At the moment, they are useless until you fill them."

"Fill them, with what?" asked Saburo. "There's not really anything in the forest to put in them."

"It is your duty to travel far and beyond to find the power for each card." he said. "You have displayed your ability to go beyond your boundaries when you left for the city."

Was he waiting for us to leave for the city to give us these cards? That confused Kenji. But he did not ask that question. "Thank you, father."

"Use them responsibly." he said. "You are dismissed." The three men bowed to each other before Saburo and Kenji left the room. Zeta stayed behind and turned and faced the shrine before he began his meditation.

Saburo and Kenji sat outside on the deck afterwards. Kenji went through his cards and counted them. He had fifty-two of them and they were all blank. "Shuffle Cards…"

"It's quite and interesting present." said Saburo as he threw himself down onto the deck with his arms behind his head.

"But why give them to us now?"

"He already told us why."

"Yeah, but I think there's more too it than that."

"Tch, whatever, bro." he said as he closed his eyes.

Kenji looked into the distance and sighed. These last two days have been weird for him and he had a feeling that these weird days were not over. As he looked into the distance, Kenji sat the large tree he made his bokken from towering over the others. Kenji stood up and put the cards in his pocket. "Hey Saburo, I'm going into the forest."

"Fine, but be back for dinner."

Kenji left his brother on the deck and wondered into the forest again. At the beginning of the day, he had a bunch of questions he wanted answered, but he has yet to have an answer to any of them. Instead, he has even more questions now. And he's straying away from the only person who could possibly answer them: his father. But he did not feel like talking to him. He just wanted to be alone.

On his walk, he found the same stream of water from earlier. He walked down to the edge of it and felt like drinking some of it. Kenji kneeled next to it, put his hands in the stream, scooped out some water, and poured it into his mouth. It was very refreshing. He did the same thing again. He felt relieved from the drink. Even the pain in his body seemed to vanish from the water he consumed. Actually, that's exactly what happened. He suddenly felt lighter after the drink.

Now completely refreshed, he continued his walk. He made it back to the tree and gazed upon it like he did before. The sight of something that big growing in the forest was amazing. He looked all around the tree and saw no more Heartless crawling all over it nor did he see any movement from the tree itself. It was completely still. Kenji looked around him at the open area that encompassed the tree. It was a patch of dirt with some patches of grass that extended ten feet from the base of the tree. I was perfect. Kenji put his left foot out and his right foot back. Next, he leaned back while keeping his head vertical to the ground and his center of gravity over his legs. Then he raised both hands with his left out and his right, both were held out in fists with the index and thumb on each hand opened up as if he was holding a pair of sake cups in each hand.


	5. Chapter 4

KINGDOM HEARTS

LIMITLESS UNIVERSE:

THE BEGINNING

CHAPTER FOUR: TRANCENDING BONDS

"I want to learn kung fu."

Donald, who was at the controls of the gummi ship, tilted his head and raised his eyebrow at Sora. "Ku-what?"

"Martial arts, Donald." said Sora to simplify the word used earlier. "It would be really cool and I would have no trouble dealing with the Heartless." Sora crossed his arms and smiled at the idea.

"That sounds a little bit unnecessary, Sora." commented Jiminy as he hopped onto Donald's shoulder.

"I know martial arts, just let me take control of your body and I'll take you for a spin!" said the voice of Ryutaros that came from the sandy being on the ship.

"Yeah well, that's you; I want to kick butt as me."

"Aren't cha' gettin' a little old to be wantin' to be an action hero, Sora?" asked Goofy.

"I'm not that old." said Sora. "Besides, everyone wants to be really cool. That's why I looked up to Riku."

"Where do ya' think he is?"

Sora shrugged. "He left years ago." He started. "He could be anywhere in the universe and we have to find him." Then Sora reached under his seat and pulled out the book given to them by Yen Cid which he placed on his lap. "And with this book, we'll be able to find any world and search for Riku."

"What about that Zeta guy?" asked Jiminy. "He certainly sound like an intelligent individual with his unique name."

Sora quickly remembered why they are flying to the other side of the universe. "Of course he would be priority number one." he said. Sora opened the book and looked into the pages for Collision City. "But, that seems like a five day trip. Do we have enough supplies to last us until we get there?"

Donald and Goofy's heads shot up and they exchanged glances. "Ummm…"

"Guys, don't tell me…"

"Okay, we rushed in preparing the ship, so we forgot to stock up on supplies!" said Donald.

"Gwarsh, sorry Sora." said Goofy.

Sora threw himself back in his seat and put his palm on his face. "Aw, you guys!" Sora rubbed his forehead. "I thought you had this under control!" He leaned forward. "How much do we have?"

"… two days worth." And what made the situation worse was the fact that one day has already passed and the second was coming to an end if they go by Disney Castle time.

"Actually, I went to the refrigerator just recently to find some popsicles and there was almost nothing in there." said Goofy.

"Don't look at me." said Donald.

"I'm a light eater." said the cricket.

Ryutaros burped and that caught the attention of Sora, Donald, and Goofy all at once. His head looked around as he laughed weakly. "Heh heh, 'scuse me."

"You troublesome living sand monster!" shouted Donald. "You've been nothing but dead weight to us!"

"Y'know yer' driving, right Donald?" asked Goofy. Donald quickly pulled his attention away from the Imagin and stuck it to the steering wheel.

Sora hung his head. "Geez, now we have to turn around and go back to the castle. Do you know how embarrassing that would be?"

Goofy fiddled with his fingers in a shameful fashion and looked back at the controls. His face suddenly lit up when he glanced over at the map. "Hey guys, I don't think we need to worry!"

"What is it Goofy?"

"If you think we're resorting to cannibalism, I should let you know that I'm not eating Donald even if he does taste like chicken." said Sora.

"I second that." said Ryutaros.

Goofy extended his large finger and pointed at the map. "No, look!" His finger landed on a blinking light on the screen. "We're coming up on a familiar world right now!"

Sora bounced out of his seat and looked out the dome shaped cockpit cover as he searched for the world Goofy found. Suddenly, his attention was grabbed by a familiar object to the right of the ship. "It's Radiant Garden!"

Donald got up from his seat and put his hands on the glass. "Hey, that's where Leon and the others live!"

"Gwarsh, it would be nice to see them again after so long." said Goody.

"Yeah! We need to get supplies anyways, why not here?" said Sora to further justify their visit.

"Alright, full speed ahead!" commanded Donald as he pointed on the dome shaped window.

Everyone stood silent for a second before Sora finally spoke up to Donald. "You know you're driving, right?"

The ship's course was changed to land on Radiant Garden. This world was one of great significance to Sora and the others because they had great friends down there. They have also saved this world on numerous accounts. It's been years since they've seen Radiant Garden.

As soon as they got close to the planet, they received a message from a familiar voice. "Attention unidentified craft, you have entered Radiant Garden air space. I will have to ask you to identify yourself and state your business."

"That sounds like…" said Donald.

Sora leaned over the microphone and responded. "C'mon, you know who we are, Leon."

There was silence for a second before the voice responded. "Rodger that. You have clearance to land. Please proceed to the hanger."

"Over and out." said Sora before he reclined in his seat and put his hands behind his head with a smile. Donald slowly took the gummi ship in using the landing coordinates given to them. The coordinates took them to a ship hanger that was not present in the past visits they made to this world. Once inside, there was a spot reserved for them with signal lights and a hologram that read: Sora, Donald, and Goofy. Standing near the landing sight was an all too familiar face. When the ship landed, and the engine was shut off, Sora popped the hatch and exited the gummi ship ahead of Donald and Goofy with Ryutaros silently residing within Sora's body.

The man that stood waiting for them crossed his arms and gave a slight smile upon seeing Sora. "It's been a while, Sora."

"Nice to see you too, Leon." said Sora.

Donald approached. "It has certainly been a while."

"Yeah, ahyuk!" said Goofy, adding his strange habitual sound at the end.

"Looks like you guys haven't changed, though your clothing has a bit." Leon commented. "We've had some changes here, as you can see."

"You haven't changed much." said Sora.

"I'm not too big on change." said Leon. Leon motioned for them to come and walk with him. Sora and the others accepted the offer. "It's been two years Sora; catch me up on you and Kairi."

"Well, we're close." he said.

"Oh, not there yet, that's too bad." he commented. "And what about Riku?"

"Actually, we're looking for him." said Goofy.

"Again? What is this, the third time?" asked Leon. "You really need to keep that guy on a short leash."

"I know what you mean. It's actually a little different this time…" Sora's voice trailed off when he caught something out of the right corner of his eye. He turned his head and laid his eyes on one of the most amazing things he had ever seen: A giant humanoid robot that was painted completely red and stood several times bigger than the gummi ship. "Holy cow!" He broke off running from the group to get as close to this machine as he could. "This is awesome!" Sora looked behind it and his smile grew when he saw two different robots behind it, each painted red and white and holding a large red lance in one hand. "Where did you get these robots?"

Leon caught up to him and spoke up in a rather unpleasant tone. "That's one of the changes around here."

"Hey, can I take one of these on a test drive?" said Sora, still acting like a child.

"Actually, they're not ours." said Leon. "These machines are called mobile suits, and they belong to an autonomous military force called A-Laws."

"A-Laws?"

"You guys have a military?" asked Goofy. As new developments appear and things got explained, Jiminy silently recorded in his log book.

"We don't." answered Leon, causing Jiminy to erase information he had written down. "These guys showed up about a year ago. They say their on the look out for a terrorist group called Celestial Being." Leon folded his arms. "We've allowed them to set up a base out here to keep watch if they promise not to interfere with our world."

Sora looked back at the robots. "That's really cool."

"Actually, it's not." said Leon. "They're actions are quite suspicious and allowing their soldiers to be posted around the town scares the residence and allowing them access to Ansem's computer doesn't set right with…" Leon's voice trailed off when he noticed that Sora was no longer listening. Instead, Sora had run off to get close enough to the mobile suits to touch them. "Sora! Get away from there!"

Sora was not listening; he was too enticed by the futuristic machine as he moved his hand over the smooth surface of its arm. "Awesome."

"Hey, hands off the merchandise, kid!"

Sora flinched and looked over his left shoulder to see a strange man he had never seen before. This man had red hair with bangs that covered his right eye, and wore a green uniform that had long coat tail-like fabric attached to the back that reached to his ankles. "That GN-X is a special military issued machine off limits to civilians, you'll need special permission be able to even sit in one of those babies."

Sora dropped his arm to his side as he turned and faced the man. Sora could tell from his appearance that he was a soldier. "Who are you?"

The man approached him as Donald and Goofy watched from a distance. Goofy chuckled and turned to Donald. "Look Donald, that guy's wearing a dress!" he whispered. Donald looked to the stranger to confirm what Goofy was talking about and laughed silently with him.

"Allow me to introduce myself, perhaps you've heard of me." he said with confidence. He pointed to himself with his thumb as he began. "I'm Patrick Colassour, people here know me as 'The Immortal Colassour'."

Sora took a moment to take this in. "I don't think I've ever heard of you."

Patrick suddenly lost his cool and seemed incredibly surprised. "What? How could you have never heard of me?"

"Well, I just got here like five minutes ago on that ship." Sora explained as he indicated to the gummi ship with his thumb.

"Just got here?" Suddenly, Patrick regained his composure and cleared his throat. "Oh, well then you're a foreigner to this world and will have to go through immediate customs inspection." he said with a confident smile.

"Customs inspection?"

"That's right." he said. "A process in which your vessel is to be inspected and all suspicious items that you possess are to be confiscated."

Once he said inspection of the ship, Sora was already against it. "What? You can't do that!"

"I'm in the A-Laws; I have every authority to do that…" Patrick's sentence was cut short when Sora launched his forehead into his face, sending him toppling onto his rear.

Sora started jumping put and down as Patrick sat on the floor with his face in his hands and yelling. "Heh heh! I just put the Immortal Coleslaw on is butt!" he said in Ryutaros' voice.

Donald ran over and jumped on his back. "You cretin, stop taking control or Sora like that!"

"Hey, you hit me!" he yelled. "That's a federal offence!" Patrick stopped his yelling when he saw Donald on Sora's shoulders and Goofy standing to Sora's right. "What the…a duck…and a…a…" Patrick thought he was losing his mind until he came to the only logical conclusion. "You bastard, you gave me brain damage!"

"Uh, I don't think you have brain damage, Mr. Cauliflower." said Goofy.

"It's Colassour!"

"Sorry, Patrick." said Sora after Donald leaped to the ground and Ryutaros relinquished his control over him. "I recently got possessed by this Imagin and he just…"

"Shut up!" interrupted Patrick. "I'm having you all arrested for assaulting an officer!" He said pointing his finger at the group.

Leon came to intervene on the situation. "Lieutenant Colassour, these guys are well aware of the customs of this world already. Secondly, they are under my authority."

"Quiet, you!" Patrick jumped to his feet. He got into Leon's face. "You have no authority over me!"

"I'm the head of the Restoration Committee; I have every right to tell you what to do."

"You little…"

"The Head of the Restoration Committee has every right to give orders to you." said a voice from the distance. Patrick quickly turned around to see a woman with her hair wrapped in a bun behind her head, wearing a pair of glasses, and the same uniform as Patrick standing and watching the situation. Sora and the others also noticed this woman.

"Y-yes, Captain." Patrick responded like a dog with his tail between his legs.

"Pardon my subordinate's rudeness, Mr. Lionheart." She motioned with her head. "Come, Patrick." After her order, she started to leave the area.

"Wait for me, Captain!" called Patrick as he ran to her side.

Sora stood in place as he watched the problem pass. "What a kiss-ass."

"That's Kati Mannequin, she's Patrick's commanding officer." explained Leon.

"It kinda looks like Patrick likes her, ahyuk." said Goofy.

"Good riddance." said Donald.

At this point, Sora was no longer interested in the mobile suits. "Hey Leon, how is everyone else doing?"

Leon looked to Sora glad that he no longer had to look down very far to speak to him. "I'll show you." Leon turned and led the way out of the hanger and to the residential area of Radiant Garden.

At this point, the once rundown town was now well constructed and laid out in an orderly fashion. Homes and stores were built upward with multiple floors to conserve space and the messy pipe work was set up in a way that they looked like they followed a pattern. This is what Sora noticed; that, and the A-Laws soldiers walking around the area. "This place did get some improvements."

Leon took them to a larger structure in the middle of the town with a sign that read: Restoration Committee Headquarters. "Even though Radiant Garden has stabilized, we still keep the Restoration Committee intact to keep the A-Law's actions in check." Leon pushed open the door and led them in through the front entrance where there was a large, open room. Inside was large computer with someone working away at it. That person was Cid Highwind. "Hey Cid, I brought guests."

Cid looked up from the computer. "Guests, well that don't happen too often." Cid viewed the people that accompanied Leon. Cid pulled the toothpick out of his mouth. "Well I'll be damned!" He stood up and walked over. "If it ain't Sora and his buddies!"

Sora waved. "Hey old timer, been a while."

"I ain't old." he said. "Not yet." Cid put the toothpick in his mouth and his hands on his hips as he called out. "Hey Yuffie, c'mon down! There's someone here you have to see!"

Sora looked around the room for an energetic Asian girl to come running into the room, but was taken back when someone dropped from the ceiling above and landed in front of him. The girl stood up and brushed her hair back before staring into Sora's face. Her face lit up with joy when she saw his face. "Sora!" Then she looked to his left. "Donald!" Then his right. "Goofy! You guys came back here!"

"It's nice to see you too, Yuffie."

Yuffie put her hands together behind her back. "Really, I thought you guys would never come back."

"Well, duty calls." He responded.

"Yeah, we're on a special mission by the King." said Donald.

"Another mission?" asked Yuffie. "Do you guys ever come to visit us because you miss us?"

"We do miss you guys." said Sora. "But we're on a special mission because something's come up."

"Can't you stay a little bit?"

"Yeah, keep the kid outta' my hair for a bit, will ya?" said Cid.

Yuffie glanced at Cid and back at Sora. "C'mon, let's go shopping or something, I'll get some munny from Leon for you guys to spend."

Sora looked to Donald and Goofy. "Any opinions?"

"I think we can stay for a little bit." said Goofy. "After all, we haven't seen Leon and the others for quite a long time."

"But we can't stay too long." said Donald.

Sora turned his attention back to Yuffie. "Okay, we'll hang out for a bit."

"Alright!" Yuffie hopped like a little girl, even though she should be near twenty. Then she approached Leon and asked for munny. Leon rolled his eyes before lending her some. Then she ran over to Donald, put him on Goofy's shoulders, took Sora and Goofy by the arms, and ran out the door with them.

Yuffie took them to the shopping district of the residential area, which was flooded with stores, people, and A-Laws soldiers. Sora surveyed the area with his hands on his hips. "Quite an improvement."

"Yeah, we've spent the last two years doing nothing but reviving our world." Yuffie said with a smile, but it faded when two A-Laws soldiers passed by them.

Sora noticed this. "Not too fond of them either?"

"I hate them." said Yuffie. "Even though they financially supported the restoration efforts and allowed use of their machines, they act like they run this place." Jiminy continued to log more information about the A-Laws as it came up.

"Sounds kinda like communism." said Sora.

Yuffie's expression suddenly changed when she changed the subject. "C'mon, let's find something cool."

Sora and his friends join in the crowd of people in the stores as they walked up and down the streets to take note of the items that were on sale. "This is a good chance to stack up on supplies for our upcoming journey." What they really need was potions, elixirs, and power up items and food for the journey, that goes without say. Sora stopped when a table full of accessories caught his eye with its shiny items on sale. "Alright, power up items." Sora browsed through them for a bit and pulled out a necklace that went along with his tastes, but his attention was quickly stripped away by the beautiful young girl on the other side of the vender. She had lilac hair that reached her shoulders, red eyes, and bright skin. Her appearance mesmerized him. But he noticed something strange about her: she looked like she was in distress. Sora tilted his head in interest.

"Sexy!" said Ryutaros from within Sora's head.

"Shut up, creep." Sora said without taking her eyes off her.

Whoever she was, she quickly noticed something and ran for it. Sora's eyes followed her and, before he knew it, he dropped the necklace and ran after her. He had to push through people left and right as he tried his best to keep and eye on her. She was running from someone, but he could not see who. Perhaps the A-Laws? When she broke through the crowd, she quickly descended some stone stairs. As she did, shadows followed her. She was being chased by Heartless. But how? Doesn't Radiant Garden have a defense system? Sora quickly followed her up the stairs. When he reached the top, he found her frightened in the corner. "Hey, are you okay?"

"…help…" she murmured

Sora looked around and saw nothing. He approached her and she backed away. "What's wrong?" Sora looked at the ground and saw the shadows quickly moving towards her. At a distance of two feet, the shadows sprang from the ground and took the form of Heartless. "Look out!" She refused to move and the Heartless piled onto her. Then Sora took action. He called upon Oathkeeper and swiped it over her body. The blade cleaved through three Shadows. The rest of them leaped off of her and faded back into the shadows in fear for their lives. To be sure they were gone, Sora surveyed the area. The Heartless were gone.

Sora sighed and his weapon vanished in a flash of light. Then he turned his attention to the girl. She was lying on the ground, unconscious and covered in slight scrapes and bruises all over her body. Sora kneeled over and brushed her hair out of her face.

"Who is she?" asked Ryutaros.

"I don't know." said Sora as he examined her.

"She got an ID?"

Yuffie, Donald, and Goofy ran up the steps and found Sora. "Sora, there you are!" The trio approached him and came to a complete halt when they saw him standing over an unfamiliar girl. Yuffie started getting strange thoughts. "…Sora…what are you doing?"

Sora looked at Yuffie and back to the girl. Then he realized what the situation looked like. "No guys, it's not what it looks like!" Donald and Goofy looked at each other. "You believe me, don't you guys?"

"Um, I think so." said Goofy. "But what does this look like?"

Sora let out a sigh of relief thanks to Goofy's ignorance. Sometimes, being simpleminded is bliss. Sora crouched down and lifted the girl off the ground. "She just got attacked by some Heartless, she needs help."

"Oh, okay." said Yuffie.

Now that Sora has been proven innocent of a suspected case of sexual assault, everyone rushed back to the committee headquarters to provide medical attention to the mysterious girl. Aerith had returned from flower picking by now and was able to provide some assistance. Now, the only thing Sora and the others could do was wait.

Sora, Donald, and Goofy all sat on the couch silently. Sora was messing with his fingers, Donald was swinging his feet, and Goofy was working a small cube covered in small squares with different colors on each side, trying to line all the colors up. Yuffie showed up with drinks and joined them on the couch. "Aerith says she's doing fine now. She just needs to sleep now."

"Yuffie."

"Yeah?"

"Why is the defense system switched off?"

Yuffie did not answer right away. "The A-Laws wanted us to switch it off to study the technology used to operate it and they felt that it was unnecessary."

"Bull crap…"

"I know, I know." she said. "We're tired of it too."

"I got a question." said Goofy.

"Sure."

"Why does Cid chew on a toothpick?"

"That's a stupid question, Goofy." said Donald.

"Cid's trying to get off his cigarette addiction by trying to keep his mind off of his nicotine craving." she answered.

Suddenly, there was a loud knock at the door and everyone turned their heads in that direction. "This is the A-Laws, open up!"

Sora and the others ran to the front entrance to find Cid with a spear in hand. "Cid, what's going on?"

"It's those damned A-Laws bastards." he said. "I'll be damned if I ever allow those fuck-faces into this building."

"Aren't you overreacting a little?" asked Donald.

"You kiddin', Donald?" said Cid. "I should have done this a long time ago!"

Leon showed up and put his hand on Cid's shoulder. "Calm down, Cid."

Leon walked up to the door and pulled it open. On the other side were two men in A-Laws uniforms and a young woman with white hair and golden eyes stranding in front of them. She stood with her back straight and her feet together as she saluted. "Lieutenant Soma Peries, requesting permission to enter."

"Permission granted." said Leon. "What reason do you have to come to the Committee Headquarters?"

"We have received reports that an unidentified individual was given shelter at this facility." she stated. "We would like to take this person into custody under the suspicion of being a member of Celestial Being."

Arrest her for being a terrorist? Is she serious? Sora just saved her from being attacked by Heartless and she's being seen as a criminal? "No!" Everyone looked to Sora. "She was attacked by Heartless, which should have been vaporized by the defense system that you guys had switched off, and you guys want to arrest her?" No one answered. "This is ridiculous!"

One of the soldiers approached Sora. "Are you going against the A-Laws, kid? Are you trying to hide a terrorist?" He started walking over to the door to the room the girl was being treated in. "Let us see this person!"

"Let me take em'!" said Ryutaros.

"I'm considering it." whispered Sora. "Donald! Goofy!"

Both Donald and Goofy leaped in front of the soldier and blocked the way to the room with their weapons raised. "She's hurt, and needs to rest!" said Donald.

"We're not gunna' let you touch her." said Goofy as he raised his shield.

"What the hell are you guys?" said the surprised soldier to see two animals display human capabilities.

"Hold it." said Soma. The soldier stepped back as she approached Sora. "I was told by Lt. Colassour that he was attacked by a boy with two animals that acted human. I wouldn't have believed it if I didn't see it with my own eyes." Sora stayed silent. "What is your name?"

"…Sora."

She examined Sora's appearance and looked at Donald and Goofy, with Jiminy sitting on Goofy's head. She giggled and that surprised the soldiers. She looked back at Sora. "You called those creatures Heartless?"

"That's right."

Soma nodded and looked to her soldiers. "Men, we're leaving."

The soldiers were also taken back by this. "But Lieutenant, the suspect…"

"Has been investigated and proven to be innocent." she concluded. "The investigation has ended." She turned to Leon and saluted him. "Sorry to trouble you." Leon nodded. Soma dropped her arm and looked over to Cid, who was ready to thrust his spear into someone any moment. She paid no mind to him and left the building with two men after glancing back at Sora.

After everything calmed down and Cid put down his spear, Sora flopped down on the couch, threw his head back, and sighed. Goody put his shield on his back and Donald put away his wand. "Thank goodness that's over." said Donald.

Sora nodded. "Yeah…" He was glad it went so well. His first experience with the A-Laws was very unpleasant, but this encounter was not as much of a struggle. He felt lucky that the woman, Soma Peries, was there or they would have been in trouble.

Aerith quietly entered the room with a tray of empty dishes in her hands. Sora's head shot up and he sprang to his feet. "Aerith, how is she?"

Aerith smiled and nodded. "She's alright. She actually wants to see you, Sora."

"Me?"

"She called you the spiky haired boy in the strange outfit that saved her."

Sora reached his hand up and touched his hair to find it to be just how it was described. "Huh…okay." Sora passed by Aerith and walked over to the door. He slowly pushed open the door to find the girl sitting on the edge of the bed patiently. She looked up to see Sora enter. "Umm, hi."

"Hello."

Sora seemed somewhat frightened to speak to her. He rubbed the back of his neck. 'Why am I so nerves?' He looked back to her and she just looked at him with a smile. "Well, I'm glad you're okay."

"Yes, thank you."

"So…" he started. "…what's you're name?"

"Anew."

"Anew?" Sora repeated to make sure he heard right.

"Anew Returner."

"That's an interesting name."

"Yes, I know."

Sora pulled up a chair and sat across from Anew. "So…do you live here in Radiant Garden?"

Anew thought for a second. "I don't think so."

"Where do you live?"

She paused to think again. "I don't know."

"You don't know…?" Sora replied. Could she have amnesia? Could it be possible that the Heartless attack made her forget her memories? Why were the Heartless attacking her in the first place? "The Heartless, those creatures from before, why did they attack you?"

Anew shifted her eyes to her feet and shook her head. "I don't know, they just followed my around."

Sora slouched in his seat. They were getting nowhere. The only thing she could remember was her name. Sora could not help her. The must be something he can do for her. Then he remembered Merlin the wizard. That's it! He could get Merlin to bring her memories back. Sora stood up. "Hang on, I'll be right back." Sora left Anew in the room and met up with Donald and Goofy. "Hey, guys."

"Hey Sora, how's it going in there?" asked Goofy.

"Not good." Sora crossing his arms. "All I was able to learn was that her name is Anew Returner and she doesn't remember anything else."

"She lost her memories?" asked Donald.

"Yeah."

Jiminy leaped out onto the end of Donald's bill. "Interesting." said Jiminy. "You said she lost her memories, yet she remembers her name. This is not a common case of amnesia."

Sora nodded. "I was hoping to get Merlin to help us."

"That sounds like a great idea, Sora." said Goofy. "We'll go get 'em for ya'."

"Thanks guys." As Donald and Goofy went in search of the aged wizard, Sora headed back into Anew's room to find her right where he left her. He took a seat in the chair and began to explain the situation to her. "I asked my friends to go find someone that can help you with your lost memories."

"Will I be able to get them back?" she asked.

"I hope so." said Sora. "Merlin's a powerful wizard and if anyone can do it, he can." Anew smiled. Sora smile back. He pulled his eyes off of her when there was a knock at the door. Sora rose from his seat and walked to the door. He opened it and Merlin walked in still dressed in his usual blue robe and hat. "Good to see you, Merlin."

"It's a pleasure to see you too, Sora, my boy." Greeted Merlin. He glanced over to Anew. "Oh, so this is our patient?"

"Yeah, please do whatever you can to get her memories back."

"I'll do my best." he said. "But I'll need everyone to wait outside so that I can concentrate."

"Gotcha." Sora exited the room, but before he did, he looked back at Anew, who was watching him leave. Before he closed the door, he heard Merlin introduce himself and instruct her to close her eyes. He met up with Donald, Goofy, Cid, Leon, Aerith and Yuffie in the other room as soon as he shut the door. All of them looked to Sora to hear the news. "Merlin needs a moment to get her memories back."

"You think he can do it?" asked Donald.

"Of course he can!" said Yuffie.

"Yeah." Sora sat down next to Goofy. "We just need to be patient." And they were patient. During the entire wait, Sora explained their situation to Leon and the others and why they are out and about again in search of Riku. He also added in being possessed by Ryutaros and where he came from.

Leon put his finger on his chin. "So you're world was taken over by Heartless and possibly destroyed?"

"Yeah."

"And Riku has gone off on his own in search for this Decade guy?" asked Yuffie.

"That's right."

"Do you think Decade and what happened to your world are in some way connected?" asked Aerith.

"That's actually a great question." said Sora. "But I don't know how."

"If we had a greater understanding of this Decade person and his or her reason for collaborating with the Heartless, we might be able to find something." said Leon.

"What about Ansem's computer?" asked Aerith.

Yuffie jumped up. "Yeah! Leon is the head of the Restoration Committee, so he can assess the computer without permission from the A-Laws!"

"But don't we have to wait to hear from Merlin?" asked Donald.

"Wait no longer."

The group noticed Merlin standing near the entry way. Anew was not with him. Sora stood up and stood face to face with him. "Does she remember?"

"Actually, there's something about her memories that I have to speak to you about."

"What is it? Is it too hard?"

"On the contrary," Merlin started pointing with his finger. "Returning someone's memories is an easy task for wizards like my self." Merlin walked to the center of the room so everyone could hear. "You see, lost memories aren't really lost, they are still there, they can be found in the vast reaches of the heart. All you have to do is bring them back to the surface."

"Then you did get them back, right?" asked Donald.

"Here's the problem with Anew Returner's memories: they were never there to begin with."

The room fell silent, unable to comprehend what Merlin was explaining to them. How could someone exist that had no memories at all? "No memories? You're joking right?" spoke Sora.

"I wish I was, Sora, but I'm not one for jokes." said Merlin. "When I speak of something, I mean everything I say. The only thing I could find was memories of her running from the Heartless."

Everyone exchanged glances, and then Cid spoke up. "So the little lady remembers nothing?"

"Nothing."

Sora looked to Donald and Goofy. Goofy put his hands on Sora's shoulders. "Don't worry Sora; it's not your fault."

"I know, but…"

"Sora!" Donald leaped up and wacked him in the head. "You gotta' keep it together, Sora!" Sora just rubbed his head and stared at Donald. "You have to remember our mission!"

Sora nodded. "You're right Donald." Sora looked up at the others. "Our mission is to find Riku, but we must first find this person named Zeta who lives on a world on the other side of the universe." he explained. "But it's a long trip, and we've already exhausted our supplies."

Leon nodded. "I think we can afford to get you guys prepared for your journey." said Leon.

"It's a shame you guys can't stay." said Aerith.

"I know, but duty calls." Sora saw Anew walk out of the room silently and he suddenly felt bad about leaving so suddenly. He looked at Leon. "Hey Leon."

"Yeah?"

"Actually, I was wondering if you can get the supplies ready while Donald, Goofy, and I do something really quick."

Leon looked at Sora, then to Anew, then back at him before crossing his arms. "Okay, but you owe me."

Sora, Donald and Goofy left with the munny Yuffie gave them from before and took Anew into town. There, they bought sea-salt ice cream from the vender that happened to be a relative of Donald's. Then Sora led them up to the place where he met Anew, which had a great view of Radiant Garden. "Why did you bring me here, Sora?" Anew asked.

"Yeah, Sora." said Donald.

Sora reached into the bag the ice cream was being carried in. "Merlin said you have no memories. That means you don't have any good ones." Sora pulled out one of them and handed it to Anew. "So before we leave, we're gunna give you a good one." Anew gratefully took the ice cream.

Sora distributed the rest of the ice cream in the bag to Donald and Goofy before taking his own. Then he had a seat on the edge of the wall that looked over the town. Anew sat beside him and Donald sat next to her. Goofy stood behind everyone. "It's a great view, don't cha' think?"

"Yeah." said Donald.

Anew stared out at the town for a short second and back to Sora. "Thank you, Sora."

Sora nodded. "I couldn't live without my memories; it shouldn't be fair that you have too." Sora licked his ice cream.

"I don't want to forget you either."

Goofy put his hand on Anew's shoulder. "With a face like this, how could you forget us?" That's when Anew finally realized how silly Goofy's face looked and began to laugh.

Leon had a mountain of supplies sent to the hanger that were to be placed aboard the gummi ship. Donald had to inspect the supplies to make sure them had enough room and that the weight did not exceed the limit. The whole crew came to see Sora leave, even Anew Returner. When the supplies were loaded, Donald confirmed it. "Okay, we're good to go."

"Let's get going, Sora." called Goofy from the ship's hatch.

"Okay, hang on." Sora was saying his goodbyes before heading off. "Looks like we'll be seeing you guys later."

Leon pulled a small device out of his pocket and handed it to Sora. "Here take this."

"What is it?"

"It's a long range communicator that Cid developed." he said. "While you're gone, I'll be looking into Ansem's computer to find out whatever I can to help you guys. We'll be able to communicate with this."

Sora put it in his pocket. "Thanks, Leon."

"Don't worry about Anew here, we'll look after her." Cid put his hand on her shoulder.

"I'm not too worried." Sora and Anew exchanged glances before Sora headed over to the gummi ship. Sora was just about to go in when he noticed someone on the other side of the hanger. It was Soma Peries. Sora leaped off the steps and ran in her direction.

Donald noticed this from the cockpit. "What is he doing?"

"Sora's a growing boy, Donald." said Goofy. "He likes girls." Donald shook his head.

Sora approached the female A-Laws soldier and stood face to face with her. "Hey, thanks for helping us out earlier."

"Actually, I don't know why I reacted that way." she said. "I just felt like I was doing the right thing. However…" She reached into her pocket and pulled out two small devices. "I've tapped the Restoration Headquarters to make sure that you were not cooperating with Celestial Being and I heard everything." She took Sora's hand and put the small equipment in it. "I'm sorry to hear about your home and I wish you luck on your journey."

Sora examined the small devices. One of them was a microphone with a tag that said 87.534 and the other was a radio that could be adjusted to listen in on different frequencies. "So I'm innocent?"

"In my opinion yes, but I have not released this information to my superiors." she said.

Sora nodded in acceptance of this information. "Thanks again." With that, Sora left with Donald, Goofy, Jiminy, and Ryutaros on the now fully supplied gummi ship and launched from the hanger onto their adventure. Sora reclined in his seat and put his feet on the controls in front of him. In this position, Sora began to relax. However, his relaxation time was cut short when a bunch of photos were thrown onto his chest. "Hey, what are these?"

"Photos." said Goofy. "I've been taking up picture taking and I wanted to practice."

Sora picked up the photographs and examined them. A few of them were of Leon. There where also pictures of Sora and Patrick and Leon and Patrick. One picture was of Kati Mannequin. Quite a few of them were of Cid and the others. "When did you take these?"

"When you guys were all talking." said Goofy.

Sora examined the ones in the back to find about twenty of them with him and Anew and some of Soma. "Hey, what the hell, Goofy?"

"What's wrong, Sora?"

Sora pulled out the pictures and showed them to Goofy. "Get rid of these, if Kairi ever saw these, she'd get really mad!"

"They're memories, Sora." said Goofy. "Don't cha' wanna remember how you guys met one another?"

Sora looked back at the pictures. It probably would not hurt to keep them, but that's when he got an idea. "I know a great picture for us." He put his feet on the ground and stood up. "Goofy, does your camera have a timer?"

"Yep."

Sora walked into the center of the cockpit. "Donald, put the ship on autopilot and get over here." Then he looked to Goofy. "Goofy, set the timer and get over here."

Both Donald and Goofy did as they were told and followed Sora. Sora went below deck and grabbed a stack of boxes that he set up in the cockpit and had Goofy put his camera there. "What are we doing this for, Sora?" asked Donald.

"To commemorate the beginning of what could be our greatest adventure ever." He said as he grabbed his two companions and stood in front of the camera with them.

Jiminy jumped out onto Sora's shoulder and dusted himself off. "A picture, you should tell me ahead of time!"

Ryutaros exited Sora's body and took on his sandy form. "Me too!"

"All together guys!" said Sora watching the timer. "Ready and…NOW!"

The camera flashed.


	6. Chapter 5

KINGDOM HEARTS

LIMITLESS UNIVERSE:

THE BEGINNING

CHAPTER FIVE: THE END OF ONE STORY IS THE BEGINNING OF ANOTHER

Kenji finally awoke from a quick nap thanks to the sun's rays that peaked through the branches of the mighty tree. He turned over on his side and rubbed his eyes to find himself on the powerful roots that dug into the earth. He did not know how long he had been out nor did he remember going to sleep. He sat up and looked around. No one was around. Who would be? He sat up getting ready to leave for his house. He remembered Saburo telling him he should be back in time for dinner. However, Kenji did not even get off the roots before he heard something walking through the forest.

Whatever it was, it was close. He was able to see the tree branches and bushes being pushed away as something, or someone, traveled in the direction of the tree. Kenji quickly acted on impulse and hid himself behind the large trunk. He calmed his breath and peaked out to see what or who it was as the figure made its way to the clearing. As soon as it made itself visible, Kenji identified the person as his father.

He had walked to the clearing below the net of branches with a bundle of flowers in his hands. Why he had them or why he came to the tree, Kenji did not know. It seemed like Zeta did has not noticed him yet. He stopped in his tracks to look up at the top of the tree to see how much it had grown. Kenji kept himself concealed as he watched his father. Zeta looked to the trunk of the tree. "It has been a while…" Who was he talking to? The tree? Kenji was confused. Then he watched as his father approached the tree and kneeled down to place the flowers next to the roots before putting his hands together to pray. Does he know something about this tree that Kenji does not? He knew that the tree was special, but his father must know why it was special.

Zeta stood up and turned his back to the tree as he began to leave the way he came, but he stopped when a breeze blew through the branches. Kenji though that perhaps he noticed him and ducked behind the trunk. That's when Zeta turned back to it. "I know…" He turned away, and this time, he left undisturbed by anything else. When he knew his father was gone, Kenji sighed in relief.

…

Bryan found himself alone in a caged basketball court that had been given poor care. The chain linked cage was rusty with the only door on it being held on by one hinge and a piece of fabric tied to the door and the fence poll. The ground was cracked and only one of the basketball hoops had a net on it and it was made of shoelaces. It was located in the middle of a poor neighborhood that did not look to be in any better condition than the court. Usually he would play a game of three on three with his gang, but they have all been hospitalized from their injuries. It proved to be tough for his gang and their families, who barely have enough munny to provide for the families. A hospital bill was the last thing they needed. He just continued shooting hoops as he waited for the day to pass by.

He finally gave up and benched himself when he completely missed one shot. There were a number of things stuck in his mind. One of them was a weird dream he had that made absolutely no sense. The other thing that stuck to his mind was the two boys that he decided to start a fight with and it mocked him. He had spent so much time learning to be strong, time he could be using to get better hours at his part time job, and all for what? Just to get it rubbed in his face that he is not and that there is some one out there that could beat him, possibly kill him. That person, or persons, happened to be relatives to a martial arts champion for three years in a row and not just for the female division. He threw his head back. It was time to think about today. He should go to work. There's nothing to keep him from doing so. "I have to get it together…"

"Hey."

Bryan threw his head up and turned around to see a girl standing on the outside of the fence with her hands in her hoody pockets. She was wearing a purple hoody over a small black tank top with a pair of black stockings and short jeans cut right below her thighs with sneakers. She had three belts on. One was used of its intended purpose; the other two were put through about two loops on her pants and left to hang. Her hair was wine red and cut right above her back and fanned out a bit. This girl was Bryan's girlfriend. "Hey." he responded.

"Are you sulking?" she asked. Her expression made her seem like she was depressed rather than concerned when she asked the question. "You should stop that, it doesn't fit your image."

Bryan looked down for a bit. "I've just had a lot on my mind, that's all."

"Is that so?" She turned and began to walk at a steady pace along the side of the fence. Bryan stood up and began to follow her. "I haven't seen you with Rune, did something happen?"

Rune had been hospitalized for three fractured ribs. Bryan did not want to tell this to her because he did not want her to know he had been in a conflict that was life endangering. "He's been out recently. Y'know, with his folks."

"So you've taken the time to think about what you've been doing with your life?"

"I guess so, yeah."

"What about us?"

"Us?"

"Our future, have you thought about it?"

"All of the time."

"Yet you barely make time for me."

"I'm sorry, I've been busy." Bryan stopped when he had come to the end of the fence and another one blocked his way. He put himself up against it and grabbed onto it while his girlfriend turned and faced him.

"At the rate you're going, Bryan, you'll be stuck in a cage all of your life, and I'll eventually be on the outside, out of your reach."

"I know." He said. It was true. He had spent too much time practicing his combat skills and fooling around with his friends. The result is not enough attention to his love life, his education, and his job, which was paying for his education.

"Think about that, Bryan." She began to walk away, leaving him trapped behind the fence.

He had to do something. He had some munny stored away for some time now; perhaps he could use some of it to spend time with his girlfriend. Yes, that's it! Also, the martial arts tournament was coming up in a few months and the prize was 50,000 munny. If he uses the munny to take her out tonight, practice for the next couple of months, and then use the rest for the entry fee, he might be able to win the tournament and win the prize money. It would pay for his education, and still have some for leisurely activities after. It was risky. Hana Ishikawa could be in the tournament as well, or her brothers. But he had to do it, it was his best chance! "Wait!" His call got her attention and she turned to face him. "Why don't you stop by my place tonight and I'll take you out to someplace nice?"

She was silent for a second. "That would be nice." She turned her back to him again and continued down her original path. "I get off of work at seven, I'll stop by then."

Bryan smiled. "Seven it is."

A little while later, he started heading back home. His home was about a five minute walk from the court down a pretty direct path. The walk was shorter than usual to him because he had pleasant thoughts in his head. Thoughts about what he and his girlfriend could do tonight. Then the area around him started to become darker. He came to a stop and looked up at the sky to see a large blanket of clouds moving over the sun. It was odd, he had heard the weather broadcast over the radio and it did not say anything about rain. But this was beside the point. With this new development, the plans he had set out for him and his girlfriend will be ruined. With that, he hung his head as he headed back to his home.

…

Saburo pulled open the sliding door to see the strange, large clouds moving in the direction of the city. "That does not look natural." As he continued to observe the incoming storm, he saw a lightning strike come down from the clouds and hit the ground somewhere, causing the ground beneath his feet to shake. "Whoa." Saburo turned and called out into the house. "Hey Hana, come over here!" Hana approached Saburo seconds later and stood by his side. "Something's very wrong with that storm over there."

Hana looked up at the clouds as another bolt came down and her mouth gaped open slightly. She quickly turned to Saburo. "Where's father?"

Saburo looked at her confused as to why she was slightly panicked. "Um, he left through the back a while ago."

"And Kenji?"

"He's been gone since noon."

Hana ran through the house and ran into the room where their father's shrine stood. "Hey!" Saburo called out to her. Hana quickly kneeled in front of the shrine and pulled open the small doors. Inside was a small box which she pulled out and put on the floor where she threw the top open. Inside was a collection of about twenty key chains like the one Hana had hooked to itself on her wrist like a bracelet. Hana gathered them all and with them came a fabric belt that they were attached to, which she put into a pouch with the key chains. She exited the room as soon as Saburo caught up. "Hey!" Then she hurried to the back door and Saburo followed her. "Hey, ya mind telling me what's going on here, Sis?"

Hana put her shoes on. "Saburo, what ever you do, do not leave the house." she ordered. "And if Kenji comes back, tell him the same thing." With that, she left through the back door and ran into the forest.

Saburo was left alone and he scratched his head. "Okay…"

…

Zeta traveled back to the house on foot at a steady pace. He did not notice anything out of the ordinary, but he was getting a strange sensation. That's when he looked up at the sky and noticed it was grey. This was strange. He did not sense any bad weather befalling the area. This was obviously unnatural. He continued to walk the path back to the house still keeping in mind that something was happening that was not of his likings. That's when Hana bursted into his path. "Hana, what's wrong?"

"Father, it's the Heartless!" she said in a panic.

This news gave Zeta a reason to be concerned about the current situation. "Where?"

"The city, hurry!" she said and she started to make a run for the city.

Zeta was about to follow her when he suddenly heard a jingle come from Hana's pouch and he knew exactly what was in there. "Hana!" Hana suddenly came to a stop when she heard her name called as Zeta ran to her, forced open her pouch and laid his eyes on the belt of key chains. "Give that to me!" He reached in and pulled it out by one end of the belt before he grabbed the other and began wrapping it around his wrist.

"Wait! Father don't…!" she called out.

But it was too late. Zeta had already leaped into the air and took flight in the direction of the city. The trip took just under half a minute before he could see that the city was under attack. The buildings were no longer lit with lights and some were even toppled over. Smoke poured out into the sky from the center of the city and fires started up in random areas. All of this destruction was being caused by the cloud above.

Zeta touched down on a street somewhere on the outer rim of the city. The destruction was all around. Windows were blown out, the streets were cracked and broken up, and buildings were hollowed out and even dropped to ground level. But no one that lived in the city was panicking. That's because there was no one there to panic. The entire city was abandoned. It looked like a ghost town. This silence disturbed Zeta, so he began taking cautious steps as he began to unwrap the fabric belt from his arm and tied it around his waist. His steps where quiet and were made carefully not to step on anything to disturb the silence.

Zeta suddenly stopped when he saw a light in the corner of his eye. He shifted his light of sight in that direction to see a bright red light. The object producing that light was a heart as it floated from behind the rubble and into the clouds above. Then the perpetrator, the one who released the heart from its owner, began to reveal itself. It was a Wyvern. It was traveling on its two legs with is wings folded up on the sides of its body. As soon as it spotted Zeta standing alone on the street, it began to slowly unfold its wings. As a reaction, Zeta pulled his right leg back and his right hand grabbed onto one of the key chains on his belt, but he stopped himself and slowly dropped the key chain so that it may continue to dangle from his belt.

The Wyvern took flight and darted at Zeta. Zeta took two steps forward and leaped into the air with a spin. He spun once and thrusted his foot out, which collided with the nose of the winged Heartless. But this was no ordinary kick. This one kick that connected with the Heartless sent shockwaves throughout its body and it bursted into dust. Afterwards, he landed on his feet and noticed a new foe.

A Largebody had revealed itself and started waddling over to Zeta in the most awkward run you have ever seen. As it reached out to grab him, Zeta leaped out of its grasp and landed on its back with his hands. From there he pulled his legs over him and pushed off of it and landed on the ground behind it. Then he crouched down and swiped his leg at the legs of the oversized Heartless and it toppled over. With his opponent unable to fight back, he administered the killing blow. He pulled his right hand back with his fingers folded up, but leaving his palm open. With much force, he thrusted it into the back of the Heartless and, upon contact with the creature, twisted his hand. This resulted in a force strong enough to destroy this Heartless as well.

He dropped his hands when all of his enemies were defeated, but when he turned back to the center of the city, he saw even more Heartless approaching, mostly from the sky. They were all headed for him. He reached for his key chains again. He knew that if he was going to survive this fight, he would have to use his keyblade, thus breaking his vow.

"Father!" Zeta stopped when Hana finally made her way to the city and stood between him and the army of Heartless. Hana unhooked the key chain around her wrist and held it in her left hand. The key chain produced a bright keyblade with a red jewel above the handle. Hana put both of her hands on the keyblade and swung it in the direction of the Heartless horde and feathers shot out at them. These feathers cut the air based Heartless into shreds before they turned into dust in the wind and the hearts they consumed were released. "Father, there is no need for you to break your vow; I will be your sword in this battle!"

Zeta accepted this and nodded. "Very well, I will put my faith in you, Hana."

After hearing his answer, Hana rushed into battle. At the same time, Zeta left her side to find survivors among the chaos, but everywhere he went, it was the same: total destruction. He did not want to call out to anyone or else it would lure the Heartless to his location and to the location of possible survivors. Zeta was beginning to believe that everyone at this point was consumed by the Heartless. He was too late. But that thought faded away when he saw a man walking around in the ruins. He was walking towards Zeta. "You, are you a survivor?"

The man did not answer. He did not even seem to be afraid of the current situation. From the looks of him, he was clearly Asian. But what was strange was that he was wearing a strange looking belt around his waist with an open slot in the front. That belt told Zeta exactly who this person was. This man stopped and put his hands on his hips. "It's a shame, really." he said in English. "To carry so many treasures with you and you're not even going to use them." Zeta did not respond. The mysterious man started walking over to him again with his left hand out in front of him. "Hand over your keyblade." Zeta put his right foot back again, ready to do combat. The man stopped and dropped his hand in disappointment. "Fine, have it your way." He raised his right hand that held a device that looked like a phone and flipped it open. "It's only going to be harder for you." Then he put in a three digit code with his thumb and flipped it shut.

_Standing By_

The man threw the device up into the air and caught it with the same hand. "Henshin!" He put the bottom of the phone into a socket in the front of the belt and pushed it horizontally into the slot in front.

_Complete_

The belt around his waist produced bright blue strips of light that shot out and started branching out all over his body. As soon as the strips of light were in position around his body, they flashed and produced a white suit of protective armor around his body with the blue strips on the surface of it. On his chest was a large purple lens. On his face was a smaller one and it was obviously used to see through. On his back was a device that looked like a jetpack. When the transformation was complete, he raised his right hand and pointed at Zeta. "Show me what you've got!"

…

Bryan was running now. Not just because he was in a hurry to get back home, but also because he was being chased by shadows that have lifted out from the surface they moved across and started chasing him down the street. He was lucky he had a lot of physical strength and endurance from all that time training or he probably would not be able to outrun his mysterious pursuers. To get them off his tail, Bryan jumped behind a pair of aluminum garbage cans and waited until he heard them pass his hiding place and continue as if they were still following him.

"What is going on?" he said to himself. This storm was not any storm he had ever experienced. In fact, it was not really a storm. This was some kind of unnatural invasion. This did not make sense, but it only made the strange dream he had the night before seem all the more stranger. As soon as the area was clear of those creatures, Bryan got up and continued to run for his home. He needed to see if his family was alright above everything else.

His home was a small building with two floors and about four windows, one in front on both floors and in back. It was squeezed in between two equally compact houses. When he got to his house and stood in front of it, it seemed abandoned. He ran to the front step, threw open the doors and ran to the center of the living room. "Mom!" he called as he shifted his head around. "Dad!" The living room was empty, silent, and dark with the only light in the room coming from the window. The second floor was the same story when he entered and called out the names of his parents and siblings. All of the rooms were empty, and silent as the grave. What was going on? Where is everybody? Those are the questions that Bryan deeply wished to be answered.

With nothing else left for him in his house, Bryan headed down the stairs. Once he was down there, he heard a strange sound coming from the kitchen. "Mom?" That was the first thing that came to mind when he heard the sound, but he heard no answer. Before he knew it, he was advancing to the entryway to the kitchen, drawn by the will to investigate the mysterious noise. When he stepped in, he found the kitchen in shambles. The walls were scratched, pots and pans were all over the floor, doors and cupboards were all thrown open or off the hinges, and something was raiding the pantry. Whatever this thing was, it was not human.

This creature stood on four legs and its body was pitch black. Its head, which was buried deep into a box of food, had two antenna-like appendages sticking out of its head like the ones on those shadow creatures in place of ears. Bryan had approached it with great caution up until his foot came down on small pieces of drywall from the kitchen walls and produced a cracking sound. Alerted by this sound, the creature swung its head in Bryan's direction and looked upon him with a single, large, glowing yellow eye.

Bryan had no idea what it was or what it was doing it his house, but it did not seem friendly, but then he noticed something. In the pantry, he saw a pile of clothes on the ground, covered with blood; his sister's clothes. "You son of a bitch!" Bryan charged at it with rage in an attempt to avenge his sister, but the beast leaped at him and landed on Bryan's body. The weight of this creature tossed him to the ground where he kicked it off of him. The black beast landed on its feet as soon as Bryan rolled over onto his. Bryan did not have time to react when the creature leaped at him again. This time, it got Bryan on his back.

As Bryan struggled to get free, the creature growled and dug its claws into Bryan's shoulders. 'Is this it for me?' Bryan thought as the creature opened its jaw to reveal rows of needle like teeth and brought it down to bite into his neck. But when all seemed lost, through what could be called divine intervention, a bright light came from Bryan's body and forced his attacker off his body and into a wall. "What just…?" Bryan sat up in confusion. Where that light came from, he did not know, but when it faded, he found himself holding a weapon that looked like a giant key with a hook head and a heart shaped frame around the handle.

He brought it up to his face to examine it. He had never seen such a weapon before and it did was not really styled in a way that was to his likings. His concentration on this weapon broke when he noticed that the beast was still alive. Bryan stood up and held the strange, sword-like weapon out in front of him. "Will this help me kill it?" Bryan waited for the creature to strike again. When it did, Bryan swung the large key at the beast and it was cleaved in half before it vanished into a cloud of dust.

Bryan looked around to find no more enemies around him. No longer seeing any threats, he finally began to notice the pain coming from his right shoulder where the claws dug into him. It was bleeding profusely. He gripped it with his left hand as he lifted the weapon to his face again. He recognized it from his dream, though it was very different. Then a word came together in his head. "Keyblade…"

…

Saburo could not help but stand and watch the storm clouds. They seemed to expand more and more as if they were trying to engulf everything. Saburo shook his head at the situation. "Some serious shit's about to go down…" He suddenly heard footsteps in the house of someone running towards him. He turned around to see that Kenji had returned home. "About time, where ya' been?"

"Out." Kenji noticed the storm. "What the…?"

"I'm just as confused as you are."

"That is no regular storm, what do you think it could be?"

"Dunno." answered Saburo. "Father and Hana seem to know what it is; she went looking for him after she grabbed his key chains."

"His key chains?" Their father's key chains are the magic items used to transform his keyblade. He had them placed in the shrine in their house and refused to open it because he had made a promise to himself that he would never use his magical weapon again. The reason being is unknown, but if he really had them now, that means he's fighting. Kenji left Saburo's side and headed into his room. Inside he removed his usual clothes and quickly dressed himself in the clothes that he wore to the city that night.

Saburo followed him and stood in the doorway. "Hey, what are you thinking Kenji?"

"We need to help them!" he said.

"Hana said we should stay here."

"When was the last time you ever listened to anyone other than our father?"

"…good point." Saburo left to his room to change his outfit.

Kenji finished adjusting his shoes and was just about to head out the door with the bokken he made when he remembered something: the Shuffle Cards. He found them sitting on his dresser in a single deck. He quickly snatched them up and put them in a pocket on the inside of his jacket with a zipper before leaving his room. He met up with Saburo at the entryway to their house and they both looked upon the storm. "Ready to go?"

"Hell yeah." Saburo ran to the edge of the deck outside the door before leaping into the air quite a distance and landing on the ground. Kenji followed behind him as they left their home behind for a very long time coming.

…

Hana had taken on the whole Heartless army by her self and managed to bring it down to about twenty. At this point, she was getting worn down with survival being the only thing compelling her to keep fighting. A Heartless Soldier charged in with its claws reached out to slice into her, but she quickly struck it down with a back spin kick before launching a Thunderaga spell on it which destroyed it. Suddenly, a new opponent challenged her, which she was unprepared for. A Heartless Ball came rushing for her at top speed and rammed its face into her body which sent her to the ground. Not that it had her vulnerable, it started to hover over her as it lustily examined her body. After it ran its tough over its lips it began to open its mouth with the intention of swallowing her whole. At this point, Hana felt that the situation was hopeless until the Ball's face split into two along with its body before it vanished.

As the dust from the Heartless cleared, Hana saw a familiar person standing on the other side holding a weapon similar to hers and panting. His right arm was seeping blood, but the flow was slowed down with a temporary wrap made from torn cloth. "Hey, lady, are you…" his voice trailed off. "…you're Hana Ishikawa!"

Hana stared at him for a second before remembering where she had seen them. It was Bryan, the boy that she saw fighting with her brothers in the city the night before. "You're that boy." She stood up and dusted herself off a bit.

"What are you doing here?" he asked. She did not answer right away; instead she bent over to pick up her weapon which Bryan noticed to be identical to his immediately. Though the design and structure was vastly different, their shape, which identifies them as keyblades, was similar. "You have one too?"

"I should be asking those questions." she responded rather harshly.

Bryan was a rather offended by her response but showed no since of that. "I was on my way home when these…these…"

"Heartless."

"Yeah, those bastards started showing up and attacking me." He started. "Then this weapon appeared and I started fighting back." Bryan let his eyes wonder at the damage to the city. "No way…this is like that dream I had."

That one sentence sparked her interest. "Dream?"

But Bryan did not hear her. Being captivated by the sight of his home being turned into an apocalyptic setting has removed his concentration on all other things. "How many of those things are there?"

Hana sighed and looked away as she was annoyed with the person she is speaking to. "From what we know there is no definite limit." she said. "Their numbers can be limitless until we find and destroy the source."

"The source?" he said to himself. He looked up to see Hana wandering away from him. Bryan suddenly started running, compelled by the need for companionship in this dark time. "Wait, I'll come with you!"

Hana turned around and glared at him. "No, you'll only slow me down, make yourself useful by going somewhere safe."

Slow her down? It was obvious that she saw Bryan as dead weight. That idea angered him so he raised his hand and struck her across her cheek with his palm. She did not retaliate nor strike back, she just took the blow. "I am not useless like you ignorant upper class citizens believe me to be!" he barked. "You were about to get killed just a moment ago, do you think you can still go on by yourself?"

Hana gave him a blank stare. Then she looked down to his weapon. It was obviously a keyblade. Just having that weapon alone made him much more valuable than any other person asking to accompany her. "Very well, but when it comes time to run, do not make me come back for you."

"Okay." he said while nodding. Bryan reached out his hand in offering to shake hers. "I'm Bryan Antix."

Hana looked down at his hand and back to his face. "I try to limit physical contact with other people to just my family members. You'll have to settle with my word that we have come to an alliance."

This was also taken as an insult. It was as if she was saying 'I don't want to touch you because you're dirty'. But he did not say anything, he just dropped his hand. "Right."

"That means don't hit me ever again."

…

Kenji and Saburo manage to find themselves on the main street of the city and looked upon the same scene that the rest of their family members have scene. "What happened here?"

Saburo looked down at the ground to find someone's purse at his feet. He looked beyond that to find a jacket. "It looks like a mass abduction."

Kenji's head swung back and forth at the mass destruction caused to the city. "This doesn't look like just an abduction, bro."

"So what could it have been?" asked Saburo. "Alien attack? One crazy party?"

"Let's start thinking more realistic here, Saburo."

"Kenji." started Saburo. "After that dream last night, how can we be realistic when we have no idea what could be real or what could not?"

He was right. Dreams are usually fabricated realities created in one's own mind. None of it should be real, but with things popping out from the dreams they had, who's to say what's real and what's not anymore? Still gripping the bokken tightly, Kenji advanced into the decimated city. Saburo followed him without hesitation. "Where do you think Father and Hana are?"

"Where the action is." said Saburo. Saburo and Kenji came to a halt when more Heartless began to appear right in front of them. Some of them they have seen, some they have not. "Looks like the action's come to us."

"I haven't seen these types before." said Kenji as he put his left hand at the end of his bokken's handle and held it out in front of him. "Can we fight them with what we have now?"

Saburo thought about that too. Both of them were given a keyblade in their dream, but they did not have such a weapon now. He wanted to test if their strength was strong enough. Saburo put his left foot forward and thrusted out his left hand. "Blizzard!" Upon command, a blast of ice shot out from his hand at a single Heartless and froze it in place upon contact. Then, to finish it off, Saburo put his right hand into the air and made a different command. "Thunder!" As a result, a bolt of lightning came down from the sky and struck the frozen Heartless dead on and it shattered to pieces. After that display of skill, Saburo turned to Kenji and smiled. "Yeah, we can take 'em."

"What about the bigger ones?"

Saburo turned his attention back to their foes, specifically at the Large Body mixed in with the group. Then he pointed his right hand at it. "Fire!" He launched a fire ball at his opponent and struck it. But the large Heartless did not seem hurt, just confused. "We…could have a slight problem."

Kenji shook his head. "We can't stop here." Kenji rushed in and swung his wooden sword down onto the head of a small Heartless before leaping over it and swinging it into the belly of another. The smaller one bursted into dust, but the other one was just injured. Despite his efforts, the Heartless continue to close in on him and his brother and their numbers began to grow. "This isn't working; we don't have any real weapons!"

Saburo quickly jabbed his fist into a Heartless Soldier. As it bent over grabbing its chest, Saburo put his foot on its shoulder, pushed off of it into a front flip in the direction of the Large Body, stuck his right leg out, and slammed his heel into the head of the massive creature. However, it was not a killing blow. The large Heartless became disoriented and fell over on its back. Saburo grunted. "Damn, this is not getting anywhere!"

Kenji looked around when he noticed that the area around them was crawling with these creatures. He had no idea that there were so many different types of them. How could they possibly tame all of them on? Then, when it seemed like all was about to end, he heard a rumbling sound. "Huh?" Kenji looked up into the sky at the storm. It seemed to get bigger and more violent. As it thundered, the Heartless around them seemed to back down and formed a wide circle around the two boys. "What's going on?"

Saburo stood with his back to his brother. "Looks like they're preparing for something big!"

As the storm continued to rage, the clouds parted as a large bright orb came down from above and started to descend to the ground near Kenji and Saburo. Both of them prepared for battle as it drew near. The orb finally came to a halt about a yard off the ground and it began to fade and the creature inside of it became clearer and clearer. What ever or who ever it is was very large and appeared to have small legs and large arms. And sitting on its shoulders was a rather large head with its mass mostly in the chin. When the orb finally faded, so did its ability to suspend this creature in mid-air and it fell to the ground hard; neither Kenji nor Saburo said anything.

"Gah, what the heck is wrong with that barrier?" the large creature whined as he rubbed his rear. "It doesn't help that the Heartless aren't incompetent enough!" When he was done complaining, he fixed his eyes on the two twin boys before him and stood up. "So you are the two Maleficent was lookin' for." Kenji and Saburo stood silent until Saburo finally cracked and began laughing. "Hey, what are ya' laughin' at?"

"Look at em', Kenji!" said Saburo managing to push out some words. "He's so freaken' fat!" Saburo continued laughing at the stranger as Kenji watched. It was not just Pete's appearance that was so funny to Saburo, it was also that way that the Heartless presented him that made him think that someone that looked more important was showing up.

"You dare laugh at Pete?" yelled the overweight dog-like man. "General of the Heartless?"

"General?" said Kenji. Kenji once read a dictionary on a rainy day and one the words he remembered was general. One of the definitions explained that it was a high status in military ranking. "So that means you're the leader of these creatures?"

"You better believe it!" Pete said proudly as he put his fists on his hips and his chest out. Kenji and Saburo looked at each other and nodded as smiles grew across their faces. "Hey, what are ya'…" Kenji and Saburo rushed at Pete. "You little punks!" Pete threw a punch at them. Kenji leaped over his fist and landed behind Pete while Saburo avoided it with a butterfly twist. Kenji took his bokken in both hands and swung it behind Pete's knee. Pete felt pain shoot up his leg in no time and collapsed to hid knees just in time for Saburo to flash kick Pete in the chin. Just as Pete was toppling backwards, Kenji leaped up and pushed off Pete's face to avoid getting squashed. Pete sat up and rubbed his face. "Where's that punk Leo?"

Saburo ran after Pete again. Pete covered his face thinking that he was going to get kicked just as Saburo got down on his knees and flattened his body close to the ground as he slid between Pete's legs. Saburo got to his feet with a kick up, turned around, and swung his foot up into his groin. Pete felt this too as he reached down with both of his hands and crossed his eyes. Kenji took this chance and swung his bokken into Pete's left arm. "Gah!" Pete stumbled back while holding onto his arm. "I think it's broken!"

"That's what you get when you mess with us, fat ass." said Saburo as he crossed his arms.

"You want to keep going?" asked Kenji.

"To hell with this!" Pete scrambled to his feet. "Hercus!" he called to his left then he turned to his right. "Ohja! Get over here!"

Suddenly a large, grey, hazy wall covered with ripples appeared between Pete and the Heartless behind him. From the mysterious phenomenon came two figures. One of them wore purple armor and a helmet that looked like a cobra. On his belt was a purple plate with a cobra on it too. The other one wore silver armor with large red eyes and a horn on its head. Also, on his right shoulder was something that looked like a large pincer and a device that looked like a beetle on his wrist. The purple one swayed in annoyance. "What? We have to do everything for ya, Pete?"

"Hey, you guys do as you're told, or the deal's off, remember?" said Pete. "Now you and Hercus get those guys!"

The purple one, which, if you could guess by now was Ohja, snorted. "Right, I see how it is."

"Accursed Riders."

Hercus stayed silent and pulled out an axe. Both of them charged at the Ishikawa twins with Ohja selecting Saburo as his target and Hercus challenging Kenji. Ohja came at Saburo with a round-house kick, which Saburo ducked. Then he attacked with a snap kick, which Saburo blocked with his arm. After all else, he used a tornado kick. Saburo threw himself back onto the ground and back to his feet with a kick up to avoid it, but he could not protect himself in time against Ohja's back stomp kick. But that did not stop Saburo. Saburo got to his feet with a twist up and prepared for the next round. "You've got skill, kid."

Hercus and Kenji were going all out against each other as well. Hercus showed no mercy in using his axe against an opponent that was using a fake weapon. Surprisingly, Kenji's wooden sword was holding out against his opponent's blade. Hercus took his axe in both hands and leaped into the air as he swung down at Kenji. "Crap!" Kenji got down on one knee and put his bokken up over his head. Hercus's axe came right down onto the bokken and slice clean through it. Now he was open for attack, Kenji knew that an attack that required that much strength would leave the attacker open, so Kenji leaped up and used one leg to strike Hercus's weapon hand. His axe flew out of his hand and, using his other foot; Kenji struck Hercus in the head. Hercus stumbled back as Kenji got ready for his next attack with half a weapon.

Ohja swung at Saburo left and right, but Saburo was able to defend against them. Finally, Saburo grabbed Ohja's arm the next time he swung at him, then his other before stomping his foot on his chest. With an opening for attack, Saburo leaped up and kicked Ohja in the chest. Then, with a spinning motion, swung is other foot up and kicked him again before landing back on his feet. "Heh, you guys aren't as great as you make yourselves out to be."

Ohja grunted and looked to Hercus. Hercus looked to Ohja and back to Saburo and Kenji before tapping a large button on his hip. "Clock up." Suddenly, Hercus was moving so fast, that the human eye could not keep up with his movements. Using this high speed ability, Hercus punched Kenji in the face, his chest, and then swiped his feet before moving on to Saburo and kicking his twice in the chest. Hercus was visible again before Saburo and Kenji had time to hit the ground. Both of them were in pain from the high speed shots inflicted to their bodies.

Surprisingly, with all of the fighting, none of the Heartless moved in to attack. Pete finally approached them, chucking. "You guys are good, but yer' no match for the power of Kamen Riders." he said as he put his good arm on Ohja's shoulder. Ohja quickly shook him off.

"Kamen Riders?" said Kenji as he tried to get to his feet. "So there are bad ones too…?"

Saburo got to his hands and knees. His chest was sore, but he hated to lose and that's what compelled him to keep going. While he was pushing himself off the ground he found the other half of Kenji's bokken. Seeing that it was better than no weapon, he picked it up as he got on foot up off its knee. "We're not done yet, fat bastard." He stayed on one knee and held his held of the wooden weapon out backwards as if he was holding a dagger. Kenji got on both feet and held what was left of his sword out in front of him.

Pete got angry. "You kids got guts." Then Pete gave orders to the two Riders. "Get them, just don't kill them."

Ohja threw his head back slowly. "You always take the fun out of everything, don't you?" Ohja and Hercus began to approach the two boys until another hazy wall appeared behind Saburo and Kenji. "What the?"

Out from the hazy wall came two more Kamen Riders running into battle. One of them had a red body with black armor and a metal frame on the front of his face with a belt on his waist similar to Ohja's belt. The other had a black body with red armor on his chest and shoulders. His helmet was red with big blue eyes and a red horn on his head. On his belt was a device that looked like a beetle like the one on Hercus's wrist. Following behind them was a giant red dragon with a long body. The red Rider stopped in front of Saburo and Kenji along side the other one. The one that looked like a beetle spoke up. "You two go, we'll handle this!"

"Who are you guys?" asked Kenji. Were they really Kaman Riders too? Just how many of them are there?

The other one turned to them. "Wataru sent us." he explained. "Now go, my dragon will clear a path for you two."

"Wataru?"

Saburo looked at Kenji. "Who's that?"

Kenji looked to the two warriors that have come to their aid. Does this mean Wataru's real too? Was that whole dream real? Now was not the time to think about it. They had to use the chance they were given to find their father and Hana. "Let's go, Saburo!" Kenji turned around and began running toward the wall of Heartless. Before he reached them, the Dragon that came along started a storm of fire balls on the Heartless and began blowing them away to provide a path for them. Kenji and Saburo were able to get through with all of the commotion and distanced themselves as they left the four Riders to battle it out.

…

Hana sliced through another opponent with great skill. Bryan had cut down a few more using his keyblade. But the more he used his left arm, the more it would hurt and blood would continue to flow through his injury. "Hey, I think I'm getting the hang of this."

Hana stopped fighting for a bit and approached Bryan. She looked to his wrapped arm and grabbed it. Bryan jerked back in pain. "You should let me do the fighting."

"I can do just fine, thank you." said Bryan. Bryan began to follow her until he looked up at the sky after hearing thunder and the wind started picking up. "Hey, something's going on up there."

Hana stopped for second and looked up at the sky to see the clouds turning and creating a spiral in the middle of the sky. "We should hurry and find my father; he will know what's going on." Hana began to quicken her pace and Bryan quickly matched his pace with her.

…

Kenji and Saburo stopped to take breaths of air. Both of them were still in position with a piece of the single wooden sword. At this point, the wind speed of the storm was picking up. Saburo sat down. "Damn, what the hell is going on around here?"

Kenji shook his head. "I don't know." he said. "But I think it all has to do with our dreams."

"Our dreams?"

"Yeah." Kenji sat down. "Heartless, Kamen Riders, maybe even the keyblade."

Saburo scratched his head. "Dude, I think my dream was a drug induced hallucination." said Saburo. "Someone here in the city gave me something to smoke and I took in quite a bit of it."

"But we had similar dreams!"

"Did you take something from Jacob too?"

"Who?" Saburo and Kenji stopped talking about their dreams when they noticed that five Armored Knights were closing in on them. "They're still following us!"

"This just keeps sucking more and more." said Saburo. Then Saburo noticed that they were all armed with full length swords and both of them were armed with two halves of the same weapon. "…shit."

Kenji stared at the Heartless as they continued to approach them. As he stared at their armored bodies and their weapons the only think he could think about was the keyblade. If they had those, they might be able to fight them with no problem. The more he thought about it the more the bokken in his hand began to pulse. When he looked down at his bokken, it began to light up. "What the…" The weight of it changed as the broken wooden sword started to change shape. When the light faded, the once broken bokken had transformed into a radiant white keyblade with red spikes sticking out the front and back of the head. Kenji looked to Saburo to see that his piece had turned into a black keyblade with a hook-like head and an eye right above the top of the handle. "The keyblade…"

Saburo examined his weapon and looked to Kenji. They nodded at each other and turned to their enemies. Kenji targeted his first Heartless and swung at it with a one handed vertical swing. The keyblade he had cleaved into the armor of the Heartless and through its body. The Heartless was destroyed as a result. Then he took the weapon in both hands and spun around to divide another one behind him in two. Saburo was also cutting down his opponents with little difficulty. His first one was quickly decapitated. Another one charged at Saburo with its weapon in the air. Saburo blocked the strike with his keyblade with ease. As he held the sword back, Saburo pulled his leg up, wrapped it around its head, and pulled it to the ground before turning his keyblade around and running it into its chest.

Afterwards, Saburo and Kenji teamed up against the remaining opponent. Kenji struck first by swinging his keyblade down at the Heartless, which managed to protect itself. Then, Kenji back flipped away from the Heartless, giving Saburo room to move in. Saburo grabbed the Heartless by its hands and threw his body back onto the ground. As he did, he put his foot on the Heartless's chest and pushed it off after he had rolled backwards, sending it flying in Kenji's direction. Kenji finished it off when he sliced it in half at its waist.

With the Heartless gone, Kenji and Saburo took time to ask themselves some questions. "Call to it, and it will come to you." said Kenji as he examined the blade. "That's what Wataru said." As he looked at the sterling white edge of the weapon, a name formed in his head. "Stardust."

"Acceptance of Darkness." Saburo said as he waved his around to test its weight. "Not the most pleasant name, but I like it." As the need to use it faded from Saburo's mind, the keyblade faded away from his hand, leaving behind the piece of the bokken, which turning into dust in the wind. "What kind of tree did you cut that thing from?"

Kenji's piece also disintegrated. "I cut it from a branch from that really large tree in the forest."

"The one at the top of the river?"

"Yeah."

Saburo rubbed his chin. "Is there something special about that tree?" He pondered the question until his concentration was broken by the sound of something smashing into concrete. "What the hell was that?"

Kenji heard the sound too and was already trying to pin point the source of the sound. Then they heard it again as clear as last time. Kenji found out the direction that it came from, it was down the street they were one and down a left turn. "It's coming from over there!" Both Kenji and Saburo ran towards the source of the sound. They had no idea what could have created that sound. For all they knew, it was more Heartless. But as soon as they came around the corner, they did not see any Heartless. Instead, they saw two men fighting. One of them appeared to be another Rider and the other was an all too familiar person. "Father!" Kenji called his keyblade to his hand as he prepared himself to go in and support his father, but the more he watched, the more it seemed unnecessary.

Zeta had dodged his opponent's fists with ease with his masterful knowledge of martial combat. His opponent threw a kick for his head. Zeta ducked in time to avoid getting hit and find an excellent opening for attack. He quickly opened his right hand and thrusted it into the chin of his opponent's helmet and his head was tossed back. He grunted when he was struck, which showed that the strike had an affect on him. With his opponent off balance, Zeta still had enough room to land another strike. He turned his body about and thrusted his left elbow into the armored warrior's belly, right above his belt where there was no armor.

The Rider stumbled back with his hand over the area where the blow was delivered. His focus on the battle was regained in time to see Zeta prepared to kick him. He was able to avoid it by activating the jetpack on his back. Has soon as he was clearly out of reach, he hovered in the air in front of him. He grabbed the two handles attached to the jetpack and pointed them at Zeta before pressing down on the triggers and sending a volley of bullets at him.

Zeta was quick to leap out of his line of fire. He continued to avoid the hail of gunfire as best as he could until it came to a point where he could not avoid it. Once that happened, he put up an extremely dense barrier of Aero magic. "Aeroagia!" The bullets met with the surface of this barrier and were deflected right back to the shooter. The bullets struck the white Rider resulting in loss of control over his jetpack and he fell back to the ground. With his adversary unable to fight back, Zeta moved in for the kill. "I thought a Rider would put up more of a fight…too bad."

"Father!"

Zeta ceased his advance on the fallen warrior and turned around to see his two sons standing at a distance and watching him. His usually emotionless expression had turned into one of slight surprise. "Kenji…Saburo…" His surprise only continued when he noticed that they had keyblades in their possession. He quickly looked away from them when he heard the white Rider get to his feet. He was sure that he was going to fight back, but instead, he backed away and vanished in a wall of ripples. That's when he noticed that the winds have risen to a violent level. He looked up into the sky and noticed that the center of the storm had become a concave twister. But that was not as important as the fact that his sons have appeared on the battlefield.

Kenji and Saburo quickly ran to their father. "Father, what was that just now?"

"What are you two doing here?"

"We're asking the questions here, dammit!" shouted Kenji. "All of our lives you've kept secrets from us!" Zeta fixed his eyes on his son as he began to shout at him. "The Heartless, our mother, we're tired of it! We want explanations!"

"Kenji's right!" said Saburo. "You've kept everything from us and we want to know why!"

Zeta did not know how he should answer back. He did not plan for this to happen; at least not this soon. Zeta looked back at the keyblades that his sons held. They were ready. He reached to his belt and began removing his key chains. "Take these." He held out his left hand for Kenji and his right to Saburo. Each hand had three key chains and all of them were different. "If I keep these, I will be tempted to use them."

Saburo took them in hand while questioning why he was doing this. Kenji looked at them and back at their father. "Why are you doing this?"

"I will give you the answers you wish for, but in the mean time, I must get you two as far away from this place as I can." he said.

"What are you talking about, father?" questioned Saburo.

"It is no longer safe here. The Heartless are planning on capturing one of us, and I refuse to let them take my offspring." Zeta reached out his hands put them on his sons' shoulders. "Do you have your Shuffle decks?" Both of them nodded. "What ever you two do, do not get consumed by the darkness." He lifted his hands and raised them above their heads.

Suddenly, a light came from each of his palms and engulfed Saburo and Kenji in separate orbs. Kenji was shocked. Did he plan to save them and leave himself alone in this storm? He put his hand on the orb and it pressed against the surface of it. "Father, what are you doing?"

Zeta dropped his hands. "Find King Mickey, he will be able to help you." With that, he raised his hands and the orbs began to levitate and rise to the sky. Inside his sons yelled in protest with this action and slammed their fists against the barriers that held them. But this did nothing to help as they were lifted into the sky and flew through the clouds.

His sons were safe now and hopefully Hana was alright as well. She must be safe by now, because even if she is or not, he was out of time. Zeta looked up at the sky to see black smog with green flames trailing it come down from the center of the vortex and fly down in his direction. This entity touched down on the ground in front of him and the smog began to clear to reveal a certain individual that he had not seen in years. "It has been a while, Master Zeta."

Zeta looked upon this person with displeasure. "Maleficent."

"It appears that my plans have leaded us back together as adversaries once again." She spoke as more and more Heartless appeared to ensure that Zeta could not escape. "You certainly haven't changed much."

Zeta did not seem worried. In fact, his plan all along was to get captured so that Maleficent would not get to his offspring. Zeta noticed out of the corner out of the corner of his eye a large individual making his way to Maleficent.

It was Pete. Not only was he suffering from the injuries inflicted upon him by Zeta's sons, but also the injuries that resulted from the battling Kamen Riders. "The punks got away, Maleficent, but at least we were able to obtain the bigger prize."

"Indeed." said Maleficent with a wicked smile.

Zeta examined Pete and shifted his eyes back to Maleficent. "Maleficent," he started. "Your search for lackeys has dwindled down to quite a miniscule standard."

That wicked smile that Maleficent held faded. "Take him away." She turned her back to him as the Heartless moved in to apprehend him.

"You will never use my children, Maleficent." Zeta may have been captured by his former foe, but as long as his sons were out of her reach, it was a victory for him.


	7. Chapter 6

KINGDOM HEARTS

LIMITLESS UNIVERSE:

THE BEGINNING

CHAPTER SIX: ORE SANJOU!

What was going on?

Where am I?

Am I alive?

Those were the questions that Kenji wanted answered as he regained consciousness and found himself under something warm. He did not want to open his eyes because his eyes were not yet adjusted to the bright light on the other side of his eye lids after being in the darkness of the city as it was under siege by Heartless under a dark sky. However, he knew that keeping them closed was not going to get them to adjust any sooner. He slowly began to pull them open to view the area around him. When he did get them opened, he located the light source. There was a lamp sitting on a small table next to him that gave off a rather dim light, dimmer than he expected. At the same time, he realized that he was under the covers of a bed he was not familiar with in a room he has never been in before.

This realization answered whether he was alike or not and half of where he was, but not what was going on. He wanted to sit up, but he hesitated thinking that maybe something in his body might hurt if he moved like after his fight with his brother. He sat up anyway to find out that his body was only slightly sore from fighting. Nothing seemed to be broken and he was not bleeding. He was also a little dizzy. "What happened?"

The last thing he remembered was flying up into the clouds as his father just watched. Everything else was a blank. He does not even know what happened to Saburo. Was he here? "Saburo?" Kenji looked around. "Saburo!" he called again. There were more beds there, but they were empty. What about Hana? "Hana?" he called. There was still no response. Then he heard s continuous sound. They were footsteps and they sounded like they were right on the other side of the door. Was it Hana? The door swung open. "Hana?" It was not her.

On the other side of the door was a woman, a stranger to Kenji. She had brown hair held back by a red ribbon and a red dress. "Oh, you're awake now." She came in carrying a tray that contained water, bread, and soup. She put the tray on the small table near the lamp and sat next to him on the bed. "I hope you are doing well." She said. "You really shocked us all when you came down from the sky."

"The sky?"

She nodded.

"You mean I fell?"

She shook her head. "Actually, you came down while you were enveloped in a ball of light."

"In a ball of light?" Could it be that the barrier that his father put him in took him all the way to this location? "Where is this place?"

"You are in Radiant Garden."

"Radiant Garden?" Kenji never heard of such a place. There were only two places that he knew of: Higurashi Woods and Collision City. Could it be that he is on another world? "Is this another world?"

"I guess it would be if you're not from here." She spoke in such a calm manner, as if none of this was new to her. Who was she?

"Who are you?"

"My name is Aerith." She spoke. "I have been looking after you ever since you came down from the sky." Then she motioned to the food. "I made this for you."

Kenji looked to the tray of food presented to him. The soup smelled good and the water made him realize how dry his mouth was as a result of the fighting. He really needed the meal. "Thank you." He took the bread first and bit out of it. He turned to the soup next. He took a small spoon full and took it down. It was well made. Did she make it?

"What's your name?" asked Aerith.

Kenji looked back to the woman. "I'm Kenji…Ishikawa."

"That's an interesting name, where are you from?"

"Higurashi Woods on the outskirts of Collision City."

Aerith crossed her legs. "There's no such place here, you really must be from another world." Kenji put his food down and stood up. She looked up at him rather startled. "What's wrong?"

"I want to see this world." Kenji started walking towards the door. Every step stung in his legs a bit, but he was able to manage. He heard Aerith calling to him and telling him he should rest more, but his anxiousness compelled him to put her off and continue forth. He passed through the door into the hall that was lit with overhead windows that allowed the sun to shine through. To the right of the entrance of the room, the hall ended at a door that he assumed to be the closet. To the left, however, the hall continued. He traveled down the hall which ended at a small sitting area with two couches facing each other with a small table between them. The far wall near the couches was a wide window which illuminated the room well. That window was an excellent portal which opened the new world to him, so he walked up to the window and looked out it with his face as close to it as he could get.

Through this window, he saw a small neighborhood of houses primarily made of wood with pathways made of rocks. The walls that surrounded the area were also made of rocks and stood higher than the houses. From this sight, Kenji concluded that this world was completely different from his own. "I really am on another world…"

"Aerith, he's in here!" Kenji heard a voice he was unfamiliar with behind him. He calmly turned around to see a black haired girl standing near the hall and staring back at him. She was dressed in one of the strangest outfits he had ever seen. Following behind her at a calm pace was Aerith. "You were right about him, he does look Japanese!"

That was the second person to call him Japanese. He looked at the strange girl and compared her physical characteristics to his own to see the similarities. Most of them came from facial features, especially her eyes. "Japanese…" His father did not have those features that made him look this way, but, in the picture of his mother, he realized that she did have those characteristics. So his mother was Japanese? He tried not to worry about that now. "Hey." That was the only thing that he could squeeze out for a greeting.

"Hi!" The spunky girl waved to him. "I'm Yuffie."

"Kenji."

"Yeah, you're like me."

Kenji looked from Yuffie to Aerith as if he was looking for support from her and back to Yuffie. He really did not know how to handle people like this girl. His interaction experience with people outside his family was slim to no one. "I guess…"

Yuffie put her hands on her hips with confidence. "So you're from another world?"

"Yeah."

"Where at?"

Where at? Was she asking for the name of his world? He did not know the name of his world nor did he know it had a name in the first place. This was a whole new experience for Kenji. "I…don't know what it's called."

"Well that's a shame." She crossed her arms and glanced over at Aerith for a sec and back to Kenji. "Is it far?"

"I don't know."

Yuffie was not satisfied with the answers she was getting. She was beginning to wonder whether there was something wrong with him. "Do you have amnesia or something?"

"No I just never knew my world had a name." he said. "Nor do I know how far it is from other worlds."

Yuffie put on a confused look. "Have you never traveled to another world before?" Kenji shook his head. Yuffie looked back to Aerith who, in return, smiled to her. Then Yuffie looked back to Kenji with her confidence and spunk regained. "Do you want to see our world?"

To see another world would be nice. All his life Kenji had been restricted to the area around his home and had only seen the city twice. Being able to view a new world would be quite an adventure. "Okay."

"Great!" she said energetically. "I'll go get some money from Leon!" She turned away and ran into the room beyond the one they stood in.

Kenji looked back to Aerith and she giggled a bit. He felt as if he was a part of some joke and felt slightly embarrassed to be in this situation. "Is she always like that?"

Aerith nodded. "Actually, it's good that she's this way." Aerith joined her hands in front of her. "There are not very many people here that are her age and our friends that Yuffie like to be with could only stay for such a short time." Aerith was speaking of Sora and his friends. "If you could please keep her company it would be nice if you could in these hard times."

Kenji nodded. "Okay."

Yuffie ran back into the room. "Alright, I got some munny from Leon; we can go out and do stuff!" She grabbed Kenji. "You wanna go or not?"

"I'll go." he responded. Kenji knew he was going to benefit from this. This was a good chance to view a whole new world and understand normal human communication, which he knew he lacked. Kenji followed her out the front entrance and began leading the way down the street. The ground of the area was completely made of stone, the same as in the walls as Kenji had noticed before. Also, he had noticed that there was piping and types of machinery protruding out of the walls. To Kenji, Radiant Garden looked very similar to a castle with up-to-date, if not, much more advanced technology

Yuffie lead the way down the street for a distance before turning around to face Kenji. "So what do ya think?" she asked. She raised her arms as she indicated to her world as a whole. "Do you like our world?"

Kenji looked around the area where they stood as he took in some last minute details. "It certainly is different compared to where I came from." he started. "Much different actually."

"Not all worlds are the same." She continued to walk ahead of him with her hands folded behind her head. "Radiant Garden is actually one of the safest worlds in the universe."

"Is that a widely known fact?"

"It might as well be."

"I heard something similar to what you said from someone else."

"Oh really?" said Yuffie in disbelief. "Who?"

"Artemis."

"Who's that?"

"He's a close friend of my father." Kenji put his hands in his pockets as he continued to keep the same pace with Yuffie. At the same time, he kept his eyes open for Heartless. After what had happened on his world, he would hate to see the people on this world suffer as well. "He comes and visits my family every so often, but he says that his world's security is impenetrable and no force in the universe would even dare to start a conflict with his people."

Still walking, Yuffie looked back at Kenji with the strangest expression on her face. "That guy sure sounds full of himself. Where's he from?"

"Arcania I think." That's when Kenji began to notice a strange rumbling sound coming from behind him. He came to a sudden stop when he heard it nearing and a tremor below his feet followed. He turned around and looked to the sky when he noticed the sunlight being eclipsed and to his surprise, saw a gigantic humanoid machine flying just over head. The machine had red and white body paint and carried a large red lance. Also, it had four glowing eyes that shown purple along with the large orb in its abdomen. It passed right over head and flew off in the direction of a large mechanical looking tower in the distance. As it flew by, Kenji noticed that it produced no heat. A machine that large should be giving of a huge wave of heat, especially from whatever was propelling it through the sky. But it did not. Instead, a red light poured out a cone shaped object in its back. "Yuffie, did you just see that?" Yuffie looked to sky with her eyes following the massive machine as well while wearing an unpleasant expression. "Yuffie?"

Yuffie did not respond immediately. "Those are A-Law mobile suits." she explained. "They're war machines that belong to a bunch of jerks that came here to our world and have pretty much appointed themselves as the law here."

War machines? So the A-Laws are a military from another world? Judging from Yuffie's reaction to their appearance and how she described them, Kenji could easily tell that she greatly disliked them. But she has every right to. If you think about it, it did not seem fair for someone from another world to seek out another and claim it as their property. They're no better than the Heartless. "I think I understand how you feel."

Yuffie hung her head for a second before throwing back up with a smile. "Hey, let's forget all about that." She went back to her usual self and spoke to Kenji at an uncomfortably close distance. "How about some ice cream?" she asked. "Radiant Garden has some pretty good ice cream here."

Kenji was rather surprised that this girl could put an unpleasant subject to rest so quickly, but it was time to think of it no longer. Kenji followed Yuffie into the market area, which had similar construction to the housing area he woke up in. walls and walkways were made of stone and stands and shops were made of wood. This image suddenly made Kenji think of his own world. His world's city was very large, crowded, and noisy while this world was small, calm and quiet. This world was vastly different. "This truly is a different world." He looked to the sky wondering if another one of those robots would fly overhead again to further add to the differences, but that did not happen. Instead, he just looked up at the sky that appeared the same as the sky that wrapped around his world. That's why he noticed something, a red ball of light. It flew around swaying back and forth as if it was seeking out something. "Huh?"

Yuffie noticed that Kenji was just standing in place and appeared to be spacing out. "Hey, Kenji!"

"Huh?" Kenji responded to Yuffie's call. When he did, he lost track of the strange light. "What is it?"

"Why are you spacing out like that?"

Kenji looked back to the sky in hopes of seeing the light again so he can explain he reason, but that light did not reappear. "It's nothing." That's really all he could say. Putting that aside, Kenji and Yuffie continued their walk until they reached a duck that took on the appearance of an old man that stood in front of a large freezer. This must be the person that sells the ice cream.

Yuffie asked for two ice creams and took both of them after paying. She approached Kenji with his and held it out to him. "Here."

"Thanks." Kenji reached out for it. As he did, the red ball of light from before swooped down and entered into Kenji's body through his back. Kenji's body was pushed forward from the collision and his head was thrown back as sand began to pour out of his clothes.

Yuffie looked down when she heard the sand rush down to the ground. "Whoa, where did all this sand come from?" She looked back at Kenji, whose head was still looking up at the sky. Shortly after, it began to hang forward. "K-Kenji?"

Kenji's arms were brought up to his face and they pulled back his hair as he threw his head back and began stretching his arms in the air. "Woohoo, it's great to finally have a physical body again!" he spoke in a different voice. He dropped his arms and opened his eyes. Both of them were covered with a strange red aura and there was a red streak in his hair. He put his hands on his hips and looked around. "Now to get back to business." Yuffie watched with confusion as Kenji's attitude suddenly changed. He noticed this and glanced back at Yuffie as if he had never seen her before and was rather annoyed that she was staring at him. "Teh, what do you want?"

"Uh…"

He noticed that Yuffie was holding out some ice cream to him. "Give me that!" he commanded as he violently snatched it from her hand. He examined the ice cream for a second before he took a big chomp out of it and spat it out immediately. "What the hell is this shit?" he complained. "It's salty!" Kenji turned his back to Yuffie and threw the ice cream over his shoulder as he began to walk away from her.

Yuffie looked down at the ice cream he just threw away after one bite and became irritated. "Hey, I just paid for that!"

"Feh, like I give a damn."

Yuffie ran in front of Kenji and pushed her hands against his chest to halt him. "Hey, what's gotten' into you?" she shouted to his face. "When did you become such a jerk?"

Kenji pushed her hands off of him. "I was born this way, who cares?"

"You were nice to me a second ago!" she shouted in protest. "What's wrong with you, Kenji?"

"Leave me alone, stupid girl!" he said pushing her away before putting his hands in his pockets and continued walking. "And my name is Momotaros!" He stomped off leaving Yuffie alone as he began to travel around the area. "Now I just need to find a door…"

…

As he searched, a group of four A-Law soldiers were coming his way ahead of him. One of them was Patrick Colassour, who was bragging about how many battles he has fought and come out alive. Momotaros found them to be a nuisance and an obstruction in his path. When he approached them, he grabbed Patrick by his shoulder and pushed him to his left. "Out of my way, dumbass."

Patrick was pushed into his fellow soldiers, who were able to catch him just in time. "Hey!" he called out. "Hey you, stop!" Patrick's shouts caught the attention of the brooding Momotaros and he turned to face the cocky soldier. "You trying to pick a fight with the A-Laws, buddy?"

Momotaros spat. "Heh, you punks aren't even worth the time to beat up." he said in response to Patrick's question. "Piss off."

Patrick, who prided himself on being undefeated in fifty mock battles as a mobile suit pilot as well as a survivor in several battles against the terrorist group, Celestial Being, was insulted by his remarks. "Now you're asking for trouble." Patrick pointed in Momotaros' direction and called out orders. "Men, arrest this ruffian!"

The three soldiers that accompanied Patrick sprang into action. The first one to attack Momotaros swung at him with his right fist. Momotaros, with his hands still in his pockets, simply side stepped to the outside of his punch and hooked his foot on the soldier's leg before lifting up on it and tripping him. He fell on his face as the second one charged at Momotaros. Momotaros tuned his back to the soldier and ducked his fist. Then he turned the rest of the way to get behind the soldier and swung his foot against the back of his head. The last one swung his leg at Momotaros for a kick to his head. However, Momotaros got down and swiped his leg against the leg of the soldier that held his balance and he toppled over. Once he did that, Momotaros brought his leg up and swung it down on his chest, knocking the air out of him. The first soldier got back to his feet and attempted to attack Momotaros from behind, but he saw his attacker and retaliated with a back stomp kick, which sent him back onto the ground. "Heh heh heh, you guys are nothing compared to what I deal with on a daily basis."

Patrick, gritting his teeth and clenching his fist at the sight of the A-Laws being humiliated by some street punk, charged in for a chance to finish Momotaros off. Momotaros watched Patrick attack him blindly with rage and pulled his left hand out of his pocket to block his punch with ease. He pushed his arm out of the way and brought his right leg in between him and Patrick to strike him with his foot. Patrick went down hard. Momotaros looked down at Patrick as he thought of a way to finish him off. Then he noticed a rusty pipe lying on the ground near a pile of crates. He bent over and picked it up as Patrick began to crawl backwards away from him. "Hey, where ya goin', 'buddy'?" he asked in a mocking tone as Patrick panicked. "I want to show you my attack; my _hissatsu_ attack!" He raised the pipe over his head with every intention of using it to bash Patrick's skull in. But he was interrupted. A man, with a red cape, came down from the sky and landed in between Momotaros and Patrick. While Momotaros was confused by his sudden appearance, he shot his foot out and kicked Momotaros away. He flew back and landed on his rear. "What the hell?"

The man stood up and pushed his cape out of his way, revealing his outfit underneath. He wore black clothing with many belt straps. On his left hand was a golden gauntlet that matched the golden metal footwear. His hair was long and black and was held up out of his face with a red head band. "As much as I despise the A-Laws, I can't allow you to do that."

"Get out of my way, a-hole!" shouted Momotaros. The mysterious man did not listen to him. As he stood in his way, Patrick took the time to run and hide. "So you want to do it that way?" Momotaros pulled out a small black device. As he did, a futuristic belt appeared on his waist. "Fine with me! Henshin!" He passed the black device over the front of the belt and a red light came from it.

_Sword Form!_

The belt produced a suit around his body which alone looked nothing special, but the belt also produced pieces of red armor that orbited his body before forming a chest plate, shoulder plates, and a back plate. Then, a red object that resembled a peach slid over the face of the helmet and split into two pieces to form a pair of large red eye. With his transformation complete. He raised his right hand, and gestured to himself with his thumb. "Ore sanjou!" he called before he struck a pose with his left hand out and his right hand back. His opponent seemed unimpressed. Momotaros took the four pieces of equipment on his hips and put them together to form a device that looked like a weapon. When he was done, a red blade shot out of the end of it to form a sword. With his weapon completed, he charged into battle.

He swung the sword at his opponent, who blocked it with the armor from his gauntlet. He pushed the sword aside before leaping over Momotaros to avoid the second attack. Momotaros turned around to face the man. Once he relocated him, the man had pulled out a three-barreled gun and fired at him. The bullets hit his chest plate and blew him off his feet. "What the?" He pushed himself up. "What kinda ammo is that?" The caped man kept his gun pointed to Momotaros as he scrambled to his feet and raised his sword. E charged at him again without thinking. The man blocked the sword blade with the thick metal of his gun's barrel. He blocked the next attack the same way, but took the kick to his gut. Momotaros took the chance to land a strike with his weapon again, but his target swiped the blade to the side with his gauntlet. After pushing the attack away, he swung his arm around and struck Momotaros in the back of his head. "Gah, you mother-!" Momotaros spun around to find three gun barrels barely an inch away from his face and panicked.

"You should learn to control your actions…" spoke the man as he slowly began to squeeze the trigger.

Yuffie leaped out of hiding from onto the stone wall. "Vincent, stop!"

The man turned his head and saw Yuffie. "Yuffie?"

Momotaros also noticed Yuffie and thought it to be more bad news to him for a second, but then he realized that his opponent was distracted by her arrival. "Heh!" He swung his sword at Vincent's gun and knocked it out of his hand. "Gotcha'!" He swung at Vincent again, but Vincent jumped back when he did. The attack still connected, but it was not a fatal blow.

Vincent jumped in front of Yuffie and kneeled down as he held his hand over his injury. "Yuffie, what are you doing here?"

"You can't kill him!" she said. "He's my friend and he's being controlled!"

Momotaros put his foot on Vincent's gun and his sword on his shoulder. "Heh, now I can get rid of both of you!" he spoke with confidence as if he had already won the battle until his hand gripped closed and swung itself into his jaw. "Gah!" He dropped his sword and grabbed his chin. "What the hell?"

'Oh, a wise guy, huh?'

The voice came from within Momotaros' head. "What the?" That was when he realized that the voice he was hearing was the voice of the one he had possessed. "Hey, don't get in my way!" The same fist came up and struck him in the chin again. "Agh, dammit!"

'C'mon, my father use to throw rocks at my head!'

Kenji regained control of his legs long enough to run Momotaros into the stone wall. "Ouch!"

'Get out!'

"Hey, I need this body!" yelled Momotaros in protest.

'Get out now!'

Kenji reserved enough strength after his possession and used all of it to force Momotaros out of him. The armor around him faded away as a red image of a strange creature flew out of his chest, hit the stone wall and landed on the ground in the form of sand. After that release, Kenji stumbled back onto a crate. "…hah…I'm back…"

Yuffie ran to his side. "Kenji, are you alright?"

"Yeah, I'm fine." he said with a reassuring smile. That's when he turned his attention to the pile of sand on the ground as it began to take shape on its own. "What's that?"

The sand formed the upper torso of a humanoid figure that looked somewhat like a demon. "Bastard, why did you push me out?"

"Why should I have let you stay inside my body?" protested Kenji. "You almost killed someone."

"Well maybe if they had just minded their own business, that wouldn't have happened!" said the sand creature, which was the form Momotaros took outside a physical body. "Now let me back in!"

"No way."

"You don't understand, I need your body!" Vincent approached Momotaros. "You! You give me your body!" Vincent, now in possession of his gun again, raised it to Momotaros and let of three bullets at him. Momotaros panicked and yelled, but was unharmed. "What are you doing?"

"What's with the possessed sand?" asked Vincent.

"It looks like a ghost." said Yuffie as she leaned over with her hands on her knees. "Kenji I think you're haunted."

"I'm not a ghost!"

"That seems highly unlikely." said Kenji. It's not that he did not believe in spirits, it's that the chances of a spirit going around and taking control of other people was an unbelievable story. Kenji turned away from Momotaros when he heard a ruckus from hear by. He looked over to see Patrick crawling out of hiding and the other soldiers regaining consciousness. "Hey, you guys okay?" They all looked at him in unison, instead of getting a 'yeah, we're okay, but what just happened?', they all panicked at the sight of him and ran for it. Kenji looked confused. "I missed something, didn't I?"

"Leave them, those guys are unimportant." said Vincent. "We should focus on this apparition here."

"I'm not a ghost!"

Yuffie tilted her head as she examined him more. "Maybe we should take him to Leon."

"I can go get a bucket." suggested Kenji.

"Don't put me in a bucket!" protested Momotaros. "It's not like I'm made of sand or something!" Kenji, Yuffie, and Vincent looked down at Momotaros' current appearance and exchanged glances.

…

"So you're an Imagin." That was the conclusion that Leon came to after examining the sand monster. That and the fact the Momotaros told him exactly what he was.

The entire gang was gathered into the lounge room of the Restoration Committee Headquarters when Yuffie brought him along and explained his situation with Kenji. Cid rubbed his chin while chewing on his toothpick. "Say, didn't Sora mention something about an Imagin?"

"Yeah." said Yuffie. "I wonder if he's related to this guy."

Momotaros crossed his arms. "Don't be stupid, I have no relatives."

"But your names sound the same." Aerith pointed out. "I think his name was…Ryu…Taros…?"

Momotaros had an immediate reaction upon hearing that name. "R-Ryutaros? Are you sure?" Aerith nodded. "Where is he?"

"We don't know at the moment." said Leon. "Right now, he's traveling to different worlds."

"We need to find him!"

"How do we do that?" asked Kenji. He sat down on the couch next to Aerith as she provided water to him after his body was worn out from being used my Momotaros. "I certainly don't have the capability to go to different worlds."

Yuffie turned her head to Cid. "What about your ship?"

Cid crossed his arms and snorted. "No way, kid. That thing couldn't even get off the ground."

"We can use the DenLiner!" suggested Momotaros. "It can travel to anywhere!"

"The DenLiner?" Kenji heard that from somewhere. That's right, that girl, Hana, was looking for a pass for this DenLiner thing. That's most likely how to use it, but he had no such item on him.

"Have you heard of it?" asked Aerith.

"Yeah, from a girl I met on my world." Kenji leaned forward. "But I was in a rush so I never saw her again."

"I have a pass!" said Momotaros.

"You do?"

"But it only works when I'm in possession of a Singularity Point." explained the Imagin. "That's why I can use you to transform into Den-O."

"Den-O?"

"He must be talking about the form he took while fighting me." added Vincent.

Kenji scratched his head. "She did say something about me being a Singularity Point."

"That's why I need your body!" said Momotaros.

"Oh, I think I understand now." said Aerith with her conclusion. "You need Kenji because he allows you to use your pass so you can get back to the DenLiner. You just happen to get in trouble because you have a violent nature."

Kenji stood up. "It's settled, I'm going with you to get you back onto the DenLiner."

Yuffie was taken aback by his decision. "What? Are you sure?"

Kenji nodded. "Yeah. If I get onto that thing, I can get Momotaros back home and the DenLiner can take me to different worlds so we can find this guy, Sora, and get Momotaros' friend back."

Leon crossed his arms. "Are you sure you want to go through with this?"

Kenji nodded in showing that he has made up his mind. Yuffie stood up and grabbed his hand. "If you're leaving, then take this." She reached into her pocket and put a bag in his hand. "It's the money I got from Leon, it's not much, but it's better than nothing."

Kenji looked down at the bag. It was a small bag made of brown leather and tied closed with a pair of strings. The contents of it were heavy, so there must have been quite a bit in the bag. "Thanks, Yuffie."

Aerith put her hand on his shoulder and he looked back at her. "It's too bad you couldn't stay longer."

"I know." Kenji nodded to her. "But I feel like that I was chosen to do this." Kenji put the bag in his jacket and looked down to Momotaros. "It's no coincidence that I came across Hana's DenLiner pass just to give it back to her then meet you here on this world."

"Well, what do ya' know?" commented Momotaros with his arms crossed.

Kenji looked to the others. "Everyone, thank you for what you have done for me." He started. "But I had to leave eventually to find my family." Kenji walked over to the door, ready to leave through it, but he turned around to view the hand full of people he met on his time here at Radiant Garden.

Cid gave a slight wave. "Take care now, ya' hear?"

Aerith waved as well. "Good luck."

Yuffie waved as well. "Come back soon!"

Vincent gave him a nod and Leon waved as well. Kenji smiled and waved as well. He pulled open the front door and proceeded through it. As he did, Momotaros made haste to follow him. "Hey, wait for me!" But Kenji had already closed the door and he collided with it, turning him back into a pile of sand on the ground. Leon and the others watched with some amusement at the fact that Kenji had left Momotaros behind. "Damn!"

Suddenly, the door swung open again and struck the sand-based creature, reducing him to sand again. Kenji poked his head in and looked around. "For some reason, I feel like I had forgotten something."

…

Kenji allowed Momotaros to take over his body again under the condition that he leaves everyone alone. "Why don't you have a watch?" Momotaros complained.

'Do I need one?'

"I can't tell time without one!" he said as he paced back and forth. "We need to get to a door when the numbers line up!"

'Like 3:33?'

"Dammit!"

'Look at the sun, that's how I tell time.'

"The sun?" said Momotaros. "That hurts my eyes!"

'Well you don't look at it directly.'

Momotaros snorted. He quickly noticed a mirror and thought he would look at his appearance. He approached it and stared into his reflection. The first thing he noticed was his hair.

'What are you doing?'

"Your hair doesn't stick up." he said. When Momotaros possessed people, their hair usually all sticks up. Kenji's hair on the other hand, looks more like it was just pulled back.

'Is it suppose to?'

"It usually does; I guess it's better with Ryutaro." he said as he ran his hand over his hair.

'Who's Ryotaro?'

"He's the guy whose body I usually use." He started walking again with his hands in his pockets. "But he vanished, now I have to use your body until we find him."

'Oh, I hope we find him.'

"I wonder what he could be doing right now…" Momotaros said to himself.

'I have a question for you.'

"Fine, what is it?"

'Can I call you Momo?'

Momotaros stopped in place. "M-Momo?"

'Yeah, your name is so long it would be better.'

"No, only Ryutaro can call me that!" he said angrily as he began stomping his feet as he walked.

'By the way, what is the DenLiner?'

"It's a train!" said Momotaros.

'How are we going to find that in any other place than a train station?'

"Dumbass, it travels through time and space and stuff!"

'Are you always this angry?'

"No!" he said. "I am at my best when I am at my climax!"

'Climax?'

"Just watch, kid…"

'Kenji.'

"…I will be at my climax soon enough and you will see just how great I truly…" Momotaros' sentence was cut off when he heard a noise all too familiar to him. "What the-?" Following the sound, was a large hole in the sky in which a set of train tracks shot out of it and traveling on those track was a futuristic train with large red eyes flying across them in the air.

'Is that…?'

"It's the DenLiner!" shouted Momotaros. "I'm saved!"

The DenLiner's tracks lead it down to the ground and came to a screeching halt in front of Momotaros, who ran to it with all the joy in the world. The door on one of the cars slid open and on the side of it was the girl that Kenji met in Collision City. She looked around the area as if she was searching for something until she noticed someone running towards her. She recognized his immediately. "Hey, you're that guy from the city!"

'Hey, it's Hana!'

"Hana, I never thought I'd be so glad to see you!" he spoke.

"Momo?" she said in a surprise and yet unhappy manor. "What do you think you're doing?"

Momotaros erected his thumb and indicated to himself with it. "This guy is a Singularity Point; I used him to find you guys!"

'You used me?'

"Idiot!" she shouted. "Do you have any idea how long it took us to find you?" Momotaros slightly cringed at her raised voice. "You're lucky we found you because you triggered the transformation for Den-O!"

"Cut me some slack, I was trying to find you guys too!"

"Get your butt onto the DenLiner immediately, we got work to do!" Momotaros, still using Kenji's body, did not wait another second to get on the train. He ran onboard like he was a school boy going on a trip to a theme park. The door closed right behind him as soon as everyone was onboard and the train sounded its departure horn. With that, the DenLiner took off from Radiant Garden and embarked on what would soon be a grand adventure.


	8. Chapter 7

KINGDOM HEARTS:

LIMITLESS UNIVERSE

CHAPTER SEVEN: A NEW WORLD

Of all the times Bryan has had motion sickness, he has never felt anywhere like this before. His head was throbbing, his stomach felt heavy, and his ears were ringing. This was the worst he has felt in his entire life; worse than the time he got drunk at his buddy's 22nd birthday party. He pulled open his eye expecting a bright ray of light to force them back closed again, but he saw no such thing. Instead, he saw a dark sky hovering overhead from between two concrete walls. The only thing illuminating the area around him was a single street light being held up at the base by planks of wood. The only place he could guess he was in was the ally way between the drug store and the restaurant that his girlfriend was working at.

Thinking about her made him sit up. He had to see her. He had to see that she was alright. After all the commotion and what he experienced in his home, he needed to at least see that she was alright. Once he sat up, the first person he saw was Hana. Seeing her so close up was a shock and her jerked his head back seeing as how she was inside his personal space, which he designated to be about three feet. "Whoa, what…what's going on?"

She put her finger to her mouth and breathed out between her teeth, telling him to stay quiet. "We need to keep a low profile."

Low profile? Was the attack still going on? Either way, his girlfriend was within his reach and he had to see her. He tried to stand up. "I need to see my girlfriend."

Hana pushed him town. "Do not go anywhere."

"What the h-?" He yelled, but he was quickly silenced when Hana put her hand over his mouth and hushed him again.

"Stay silent!" she whispered.

"Why are you stopping me?" he asked. "And if you don't like touching people, why did you put your hand over my mouth!"

"The situation calls for it." she said. She turned her body and looked around. Bryan had no idea what she was looking out for, but he could assume that she was keeping an eye out for the Heartless.

"Are the Heartless nearby?"

"From what I can tell, there are no Heartless here."

"Then let me go see my girlfriend!" this time he whispered it, but with a tone that made it sound as if he was yelling.

"You won't find her."

"Why not?"

"We are on a different world."

"…what?" A different world? What does she mean by that? "What do you mean?"

"I mean what I said: we are no longer on the world we called home and have travelled to a different one; one that could be very far from our own."

Bryan stood up, but did not leave the ally they were concealed in. "You mean like a different planet?" Hana nodded. However, Bryan was skeptical. For all he knew, this was only a ruse to keep him from leaving. "How do I know this is a different world?"

Hana turned away from the street outside the ally and glared at him with the expression that read: do I have to explain everything. Then she motioned with her head for him to glance out at what she was looking at. "Look at the people."

Bryan did as instructed. He notices that Hana was looking out in a way that she was concealed by the shadows and the junk just randomly placed in the ally and did the same as he watched. He put his back against the chipped up concrete wall and peaked around the corner. The first thing he noticed was a man walking with his back turned to them. He wore normal clothed and looked quite human, but the thing that set him apart from Bryan and Hana was his ears. His ears were elf-like and extended almost two feet out of his head. The same could be said about everyone else in the area, both men and women. That was not the only difference he noticed. When he looked up into the sky, he also noticed vehicles flying in the sky that looked like cars and motorbikes. He pulled his head back in shock. This couldn't be a dream.

He did not know what to do, but when he stared at Hana, who gave the expression that said to him: told you so, he got enraged, ran over and pushed her against the wall. "WHAT THE FUCK IS GOING ON HERE?" he yelled in a panic. "WHERE ARE WE? WHAT ARE THOSE PEOPLE? WHAT HAPPENED TO MY HOME?"

"What was that?" said the voice nearby. It sounded like someone talking into a microphone and his voice was being projected through a speaker. Hana quickly raised her hands and pushed Bryan onto his rear behind a crate. With him hidden, she jumped behind an empty iron drum. Bryan was confused; he noticed that someone was looking into the ally when he saw flashlights moving around and wanted to take a look. He peeked over the crate while trying to keep within the shadows. He saw three men cladded in red armor with helmets that hid their faces. Their flash lights were attached to long barrel rifles. "I heard something around here." Bryan crouched back down behind the crates

Another one spoke up. "There's nothing here, keep moving." They turned out the lights and started leaving. "There's lots of underground activity around here; keep searching."

Bryan peaked over the crate again to check if they were really gone. The area seemed clear, so he stood up and stepped quietly over to Hana. "Okay, you seemed to be the expert, who were they?"

Hana shook her head. "I don't know, but it can be assumed that they're law enforcement."

Bryan sighed. They had just arrived at a new world and they are already having difficulties with the area. "Now I know how immigrants feel."

Hana tried as she slowly stood up not to make a sound before she walked lightly to the end of the ally and started looking around. They needed to find a way to conceal their appearance as they traveled. She looked up and noticed the flying vehicles. She quickly turned to Bryan. "Can you drive?"

"Is that a trick question?" Bryan responded, a little annoyed.

"We are going to have to commandeer one of these flying vehicles."

Bryan stood up and joined her as they watched the flying cars pass over head. "Wouldn't we be breaking the law?"

"We would probably be treated like aliens just walking around the area, but my father told me that we should not disrupt the nature of other worlds." She said. "And our appearance is enough to do that, so we have to take one of these vehicles and so we are not identified easily."

"Taking that kind of action still sounds like disrupting the nature." Grand theft auto was nothing new to Bryan. His buddies had been involved in car theft a number of times, but he had never stolen one himself, nor has he tried stealing a flying car. "Why did you ask me if I can drive, can't you?"

"I cannot."

So far, the most ridiculous thing he's hear so far was a woman older than him telling him she cannot drive a car. He shook his head and looked up at the different choices they could make in stealing a car. Most of them seated multiple people and all of them were topless. They would be easy to take, but they all fly overhead and not at ground level. "So how do we get one?" As soon as he asked that question, Hana leaped onto the roof of one of the buildings and jumped off of it onto a vehicle with two seats. Hana grabbed the driver and threw him onto the roof of the building. Bryan said nothing as he watched this illegal act unfold.

Hana called down to him. "Hurry!" Bryan quickly climbed to the roof using the crates in the ally. The owner of the vehicle did not see him; he was too busy trying to get up while clutching his arm. Bryan made a quick jump into the vehicle's driver seat. "Drive, quickly!"

"Are you insane?" For Bryan, seeing someone like Hana commit such a crime made her seem hypocritical, but he did not make any comments. By now, the driver was trying to flag down someone to help him so they needed to act quickly. He situated himself in the seat and quickly scanned over the controls. It was just like a car, with an accelerator pedal, brakes, and searing wheel, but the wheel was a pair of crescent bars held together on a pivoting point so it still operates like a wheel. "Dammit…" He grabbed the wheel and stomped on the accelerator and the vehicle shot forward.

Bryan was flying faster than the cars around him. As a result he had to take many tight turns. The vehicle was bulky and hard to maneuver. He had a few close calls as he weaved in and out between vehicles as he drove at high speeds. Bryan looked to Hana. Her hair was fling behind her as she looked forward as if they did nothing wrong. "You do realize that we have probably broken many laws by now, right?"

"This is not the time to be talking about that right now." she responded. She looked back.

"Is the fuzz following us?" Bryan asked. Thinking about the law enforcement made him think about the armored men that were looking for them and, by the looks of them and the equipment they were carrying, he did not want to mess with them.

"The what?"

"The cops!" Bryan said as he looked from forward to her and back forward. "The police?"

"Not yet."

Bryan shook his head. Sure, he's done some things he's not too proud off in the past, but this was clearly insane. He has never, in his life, had to run from the law or fight it, no matter how much it has screwed him over. He finally took his foot off the accelerator when they came to a clearing with no people or vehicles.

Hana looked around. "Why did we stop?"

Bryan released the steering wheel and let his hands drop into his lap as the vehicle remained suspended in the air. He turned to Hana and glared at her. "I want answers, and I want them now."

"What could I possibly know that you want?"

"How did we get here?"

Hana glanced over at him and looked away before she took a breath. "I brought us here."

"You did?" This was an unbelievable answer that required him to get her to go into more detail. "How?"

Hana was silent for a second. "It's a technique my father knows; he taught it to me when I was young." she started. "It's a means of warping to other worlds; my father uses it when he travels to different worlds."

"And you can do it too?"

"Unfortunately, I have very little control over it, I can take us to other worlds, but I don't know where we will go." she explained while feeling rather guilty.

Bryan threw his head back. "So we can go to other worlds, but we could be traveling to other worlds endlessly?"

"Unfortunately."

Bryan exhaled. At this point, being able to see his home again seemed like an impossibility. But he had another question. "What about this weapon, the keyblade?" Hana looked at him in response. "I have it, you have it; what is it?"

Hana crossed her arms. "The keyblade is a magical weapon produced by the entity known as Kingdom Hearts."

"Kingdom Hearts?"

"What Kingdom Hearts really is I do not know, but it bestows upon a selected few the power to use the keyblade."

"How does someone get selected?"

"It depends on their hearts." Hand brushed her hair out of her face. "Those with strong hearts are possible candidates for the keyblade."

"And what about me?" he asked. "Why me?"

Bryan, unfortunately, was unable to get his answer. He suddenly heard a voice near them. It sounded like it came out of a speaker, but the radio, assuming the vehicle has one, was not on. He turned around and his eye was quickly fixated on the red armored vehicle behind them that had a mounted gun on it. "Shit!" He grabbed the wheel and slammed his foot on the accelerator, both he and Hana jerked back from the instant acceleration.

He quickly turned a corner and quickly had to turn again. Their pursuers started firing at them as they were chased. "Keep your head down!" Bryan commanded. Hana quickly ducked her head and kept it down for the remainder of the ride.

The area around them quickly changed from some rundown slums to an area completely composed of metal pipes, walls, and ramps that took people on foot to a higher level. There was enough room for their vehicles to fly underneath. Bryan tried to maneuver in this area, but the ramps, the support beams, and the tight area made driving difficult at the speed he was driving at. He quickly took a turn down a narrow path, but the turn was not tight enough as he knocked the tail end of the vehicle into the wall before accelerating. "I must be crazy…"

A red flying vehicle that looked like a motorcycle came up alongside Bryan's left. Riding it was one of the red armored men. "Pull over, in the name of the Crimson Guard!"

"Crimson Guard?" Bryan repeated to himself. He could have guessed their name by their appearance. The soldier pulled out a long staff with a pair of prongs at the end emitting electricity and thrusted it at Bryan. Bryan pulled the car away to avoid having thousands of volts of electricity fly through his body and scrapped the side of his vehicle on the wall on the right. Bryan looked forward to see another support beam coming up and he got an idea. He turned and looked at the guard on his side and turned the wheel hard left. He bumped the vehicle into a collision course with the support beam and it collided. "Yes!" Bryan looked back through his rear view mirror to see that the vehicle had crashed and exploded. But his relaxation was cut short.

Bryan's vehicle suddenly took a bunch of shots that came from the heavily armored vehicle following behind him. A fire started on the tail end of his vehicle and smoke trailed behind him. "Not good…" He looked back at his speedometer to see that they were losing speed. He looked into the passenger seat to see that Hana still had her head down. It looked like the end of the road for them as the vehicle started to close in on them, but they did not come within ten feet of them before falling under a hail of yellow beams that cut through the Crimson Guard vehicle like butter. The vehicle finally reached its limit and crashed on the ground. Bryan was shocked. Who could have saved them?

Bryan looked back to see a civilian vehicle approaching them. It was a single person rider. The rider was a man in a blue tunic, long blonde hair, goggles on his head, and long ears like everyone else. On his shoulder was a small yellow rodent with goggles on his head holding a gun almost twice its own size. They came along side Bryan's vehicle and. "Land quickly; your ride's engine won't take anymore strain in its condition!"

It was true; the vehicle Bryan was in was not going to last any longer and it appears that the Crimson Guard was no longer on their tail. Bryan looked at Hana's face. She did not give any sign that told Bryan that trusting these individuals was a bad choice. Bryan brought the vehicle down to the ground. Their new found allies parked next to them at a distance. Bryan and Hana both exited the vehicle and approached the man as he approached them. The orange animal on the stranger's shoulder leaped off and approached them. "Wow, would cha' look at her!"

A rodent with the ability to form a sentence like that left Bryan a little disturbed. The comment was directed at Hana so he glanced at her to see her response. Her expression remained unchanged. The taller man approached them. "Looks like you guys got in a tussle with the Crimson Guard." he said. "It's best not to do that without the right equipment."

"In my defense, it wasn't my idea." said Bryan. "Well, thanks for helping us out, man."

The man rubbed his chin as he examined Bryan and Hana. "You guys are definitely not from around here." he concluded. "Your ears are very small."

Bryan looked at the man's ears to get a better idea as to the normal length for ears in this world. "Uh-huh…"

"We are foreigners to this area." said Hana when she finally decided to speak up.

The man nodded. "Alright." He held his hand out to Bryan. "Name's Jak."

Bryan accepted it. "Bryan, Bryan Antix."

Jak looked down to the diminutive associate. "And this is…"

"Hold on there, buddy!" The rodent spoke confidently as he interrupted Jak. "I think I can properly introduce myself." He walked forward and cleared his throat. "Allow me to introduce myself, I am Daxter; at your service." he said as he held his hand out to Hana.

"It is a pleasure." she said in response. "My name is Hana Ishikawa."

Jak folded his arms in displeasure and rolled his eyes at Daxter. Ignorant of how he felt, Daxter turned to Jak. "She may not have the ears, but would ya look at that body, buddy."

Jak turned his attention back to Bryan. "Anyways, we need to get you guys out of the area." He started. "The Crimson Guard are persistent; they'll be back with even greater numbers." He explained. "I know of a place near here that we can take cover in until things cool off a bit." Jak motioned over his shoulder with his thumb. "I got friends there you can trust."

With no other choice, Bryan nodded in acceptance with Jak's plan. "Agreed, get us out of here, Jak."

Jak took them into a vehicle he had hidden in reserve for him and got them aboard. Jak drove it at the same speed as the other ones to avoid drawing attention to them. The scenery changed quickly as they traveled all around the city. Hana observed this detail and turned to Jak. "Jak, where is this place?"

"You're in Haven City." he explained. "It may look like a nice place in some areas, but this place is a prison."

"A prison?" Bryan asked.

"Yeah." Jak turned the wheel and followed a long right turn. "This city is sealed off by the outer walls. No one goes in or out of the city."

"Who's in charge?" asked Bryan determined to know who would allow a civilization as confined as this.

"Baron Praxis." said Jak. "He's a tyrant and—let's just say—not a very good guy."

Daxter finally decided that it was his turn. "That giant prick did some nasty experiments on my buddy over here and now he's out to get us!"

"What did he do to you?" asked Hana.

"You might find out." Jak answered. He refused to go into any detail and continued to navigate to their destination while being well aware that Hana was staring at him from behind his head. Jak navigated his way through the intricate layout of Haven city back to the area commonly known as the slums. It much reminded Bryan of the part of Collision City that he lived in, if it still exists. Jak's destination was a secluded back corner of the slums where there were no people. He parked the vehicle in a hidden location and leaped out. He motioned with his thumb. "We're gonna walk from here. We wouldn't want to give away our location."

"Our?" asked Bryan as he followed Jak with Hana close behind him.

"The Underground." said Jak. "We're a rag-tag handful of rebels hell bent on overthrowing the Baron piece by piece."

"Yeah." added Daxter. "And let me tell ya, they'd be nothing without us." He said to Bryan and Hana, but it was more directed towards Hana.

"Rebels huh?" said Bryan. He actually liked the idea. The idea of the weak and overlooked rising up against oppression and the unjust was just the kind of thing he wanted to be part of for the longest time. The thought brought a smile to his face. "Hey Jak, you should let us help you guys out."

Hearing Bryan's statement, Jak stopped and turned around to face the two. "Help us?" he asked. "Look, we do some dangerous stuff out there and I don't think you guys want to get involved."

"Yeah, buddy." Daxter spoke up to add to the conversation. "We go out there and risk our tails against all types of ass-ugly monsters."

"And it got worse just recently." said Jak.

"How's that?" asked Bryan.

"We've just discovered a new type of creature roaming in and out of the city." He started. "I don't know what they are, but these little black creatures have been going around and attacking civilians and Underground members alike."

The description of the creatures made Bryan and Hana both realize that the creatures Jak and Daxter have been dealing with were Heartless. It appears the Heartless have been expanding their operations onto different worlds. Hana immediately stepped in. "Then your struggle has become ours as well."

Jak was confused. "How's that?"

"We share a common foe." she explained. "These creatures you speak of are called Heartless and they seek the hearts of others."

Bryan decided to add his part as well. "We've seen what these guys are capable off, Jak; let us help you!"

"You guys seem to be experts at these creatures." Jak crossed his arms.

"Yeah, but do you guys have what it takes to go through the wild shit we've been through?" asked Daxter.

Bryan sighed and crossed his arms at the fact that Daxter was hinting at the need of a demonstration of their skills. Bryan looked to Hana. Hana looked at Bryan and seemed to have gotten his message. She looked up above her head at the single street light that hung above their heads and illuminated the ground they stood upon. Keeping an eye on the light fixture, she walked backwards about three steps as everyone watched. A second later, Hana ran those three steps, leaped up, threw her body back, threw her left foot out, and smashed the light bulb right out of the fixture before landing back on her feet and assuming her usual posture. Bryan looked back at the duo as they stared at Hana with their jaws hanging open.

With Jak and his diminutive partner convinced, they allow the two foreigners entrance into the Underground hideout. The hideout was disguised as a wall in the side of one of the run down duplexed apartments. It opened to give way to Bryan and the others once they showed up at the front. Jak went in ahead of them. Inside was a dim-lighted room with many bunk beds. There were also exposed piping on the walls and ceiling. In the back of the room were a few shelves and a table sitting under a single hanging light fixture. Sitting at the table and examining a map with marks on it was a man. Upon hearing footsteps, me looked up and beheld Jak as he approached him with a satisfied smile. "Good job, Jak, looks like you got rid of those Hell Cats." His voice was low and rough.

"No problem, those things may be able to shoot front and back, but nothing to the sides." said Jak as he explained the details of his previous mission. "They go down after a storm of bullets."

Daxter decided to leap up onto the table to add his input. "All thanks to my excellent marksmanship." He spoke proudly, but the man seemed unimpressed with whatever Daxter had to say.

"Did you see any of those black creatures during the mission?"

"Not this time."

The man nodded with the satisfying results. That's when he noticed Bryan and Hana standing idly by in the darker half of the hideout. He suddenly put on a snaring look once he laid eyes on them. "What the fuck are they doing here Jak?"

Jak looked to Bryan and Hana. "Easy Torn, they're back up."

"They're a liability!" he snapped. "What if they're spies? Our hideout could be exposed now!"

"I just saved them from being under fire from a Crimson Guard pursuit squad."

"It's a set up!"

"Hey man, let the lady stay, at least!" said Daxter in Hana's defense.

"Hey!" protested Bryan knowing that Daxter was willing to let him go.

"Fuck you!" shouted Torn to Daxter.

"Hey!" Jak grabbed his shoulder. "Just hear them out."

Torn grunted at Jak and turned his attention to the two newcomers. He leaned over and put his hands on the edge of the table. "Okay, let's hear your story." He was obviously not in the mood. Bryan stepped into the light and Torn got a good look at him. His eyes widened when he saw his ears. "My god, they cut off your ears!" he commented. "What kind of sick torture have they put you through?"

"Nah man, my ears were always like this." Explained Bryan. "We're just…"

Hana finished his sentence. "Foreigners."

"Yeah." He nodded. "Foreigners."

"Foreigners?" he said. "Native to the city? You couldn't be."

"We are, sort of." Bryan continued. "Look, we want to help you guys." He started with his reasons for being there. "We heard from Jak about your struggle against this Baron guy and its kinda something I always wanted to see happen: a rising against those who think they're above everyone else."

"We're not some kind of club here, kid."

"That's not what I meant." said Bryan as he defended his explanation. "Look, you guys are fighting these black creatures, right?"

"You know about them?"

Hana stepped in. "They are called Heartless." She started. "They are creatures formed from the darkness and they feed on the darkness in the hearts of others." This story seemed quite unbelievable to Torn, but after the trouble they caused, he was willing to hear anything that could be helpful. "These creatures do not have the mentality to act on their own however. They are probably being manipulated by some in the city, perhaps this Baron Praxis."

Torn took time to take this all in. He looked to Jak and Jak nodded to him as if signaling him to trust this information. He looked back to Bryan and Hana. "How do you know all of this?"

"Personal experiences."

"We've seen these creatures before and we know what they are capable of." added Bryan.

"What are you trying to tell me with all of this?" asked Torn.

At this point, Bryan came up with an answer that might just get them in. "We're here to defeat the Heartless for you."

Torn did not know what to say. He moved away from the table without saying anything and he joined Jak in the back corner in privet. "Better take these two to The Shadow. If what these guys are saying is true, then that gibberish about other worldly figures and 'the key that will cut through the darkness' might be true."

Jak nodded. "I gotcha'."

Torn nodded and pulled away from Jak. He approached the table that separated him from Bryan and Hana. "Looks like we got some room for you guys."

"So you'll let us help?" asked Bryan.

"Look, I don't trust new faces very easily, so we'll be keeping a close eye on you two until we can confirm something with The Shadow." He stated. "That'll be a little later; you guys can sack out here for the night."

"Thanks, man." Bryan said. "I'm Bryan, by the way, and this is Hana." He gestured with his eyes.

"Well then Bryan, I'll be expecting great things from ya'." Torn replied. "Choose a bunk."

Bryan was quick chose one. With the lifestyle he was brought up in, he learned not to be picky. He jumped in and quickly got comfortable by putting his hands under his head and crossed his leg over the other. His shoes were placed at his bedside. "Y'know, for a world that we landed on by chance, I kinda like it here." He was satisfied with their current situation. They were just enlisted in a rebel group ready to fight the oppressive leader. Bryan turned his head to observe Hana. She had sat down on the bed next to his and moved her hand over the surface. Bryan's smile disappeared because he knew what was going through her head. "Not what you're use to huh?" He got no response out of her. "You rich people probably sleep on some top quality stuff." She lifted her head and looked at him. "I'll bet cha' there are beds up there that cost the same amount of munny that guys like me can retire on." He switched his legs and closed his eyes. "You could probably purchase something like that with pocket change."

Hana looked down at her hands that clutched her keychain as they sat in her lap. "It's true that people are molded a certain way because of the life they've been exposed to."

"Damn right."

Hana cupped the keychain in both hands. "It makes me wonder what my father was exposed to that gave him his stoic nature."

That last statements made Bryan open one of his eyes as it slightly sparked his interest. The first time Hana mentioned her father was that night in Collision City where he met her for the first time and only a few other times after. According to many in the martial arts world, her father was supposed to be this insane master of all forms of combat. These were just rumors of course; but after seeing what she and her brothers were capable of, some of those rumors might be true. Bryan stopped being concerned with that subject and rolled over in his bed to remove the light above Torn's table out of his face. He was anxious to know what was in store for him as they continued their stay in Haven city.


	9. Chapter 8

KINGDOM HEARTS

LIMITLESS UNIVERSE:

THE BEGINNING

CHAPTER 8: POTENTIAL

Bryan, Hana, Jak, and Daxter left late the next day to begin a new mission, not one that they were assigned, but a personal mission that Jak had to attend to. Jak was at the wheel of a three person vehicle. Bryan and Hana were given hooded cloaks to hide their identities as different life forms from the people in Haven City. "Hey Jak, mind telling us where we're going?" Bryan asked.

"We're going to see Onin." he responded.

"Onin?" Daxter was quick to respond to Jak in detest. "Why do we have to go see that ancient relic?"

"Because we need her Daxter."

Bryan raised his eyebrow. "So who exactly is this person? Is Onin important?"

"Yeah." said Jak. He drove his vehicle swiftly through the intricate city layout like he had been there his entire life, or he has been through the same area a dozen times. Jak's driving lead them to what looked like a bazaar area in the city. The area was of a simple layout and not so technologically advanced compared to most of the city. There were stands and crates made of wood everywhere and pots of water. Most of the stands sold fruit and other natural fruits. Jak touched down in the bazaar as Bryan and Hana quickly put their hoods up to avoid drawing attention.

As they disembarked, Bryan noticed that they were parked next to a large tent in the middle of the bazaar with a large skull imprinted on the fabric roof. This was probably where this Onin lived. Jak walked ahead of them and entered the tent first. Bryan entered behind him with Hana trailing behind them. The inside was lit by torches around an elderly person that sat in the middle of the tent. This person was sitting on the ground with her legs crossed and large saucer over her head with a colorful bird-like animal sitting in it. The tent itself was cluttered with a number of random items, but also had a disturbing large skull-like piece in the back with an eerie purple light emanating from it. The group quickly noticed that they were not the only ones in the tent with the aged woman. There was also an elderly man with long white hair who supported himself with a walking stick. This man seemed to be talking to the woman. "Depending on the boy to save us is folly!" he spoke as he pounded the ground once with his stick. "At his age, he's no match for the Metal Head Leader!"

"Who is that?" asked Bryan to Jak.

"That's Kor." said Jak. "I don't know much about him, though."

Kor turned to see Jak and the group. "Oh Jak, we were just talking about Samos's plan." he said with surprise in seeing him.

"Onin says your voice sounds familiar." Spoke the animal in the saucer. Bryan was slightly disturbed and gave a glance back to Hana, who did not seem to see it as being strange. "I'll bet you two golden oldies go way waaay back, huh?"

From this, Bryan was able to deduct that Onin was the old woman that was clearly blind. But who the bird-like animal on her head was he did not know. "So that's Onin."

The old woman glanced in Bryan's direction when he spoke. The bird began to speak again. "Onin says der' is a voice in de' room dat' Onin is not familiar with." The bird locked onto Bryan and Hana. "Jak, who are they?"

"Sorry, this is Bryan and Hana, they're new and quite valuable to our cause, mind if they intrude?" said Jak.

"Of course, of course." said the bird. "Name's Pecker, and I am Onin's personal interpreter."

"Interpreter?" Bryan repeated in disbelief.

"Onin must be blind and mute." spoke Hana. "But it appears her hearing is very sharp and her mental communications are very high so that this animal can speak for her."

"Right." Said Bryan. With introductions completed, Bryan looked to Kor, who greeted Bryan with a slight bow. Bryan returned the greeting without uttering a word to him.

"Onin needs you to prove yourself, Jak." spoke Pecker as he turned the attention towards him. "You have shown your brass, and your brawn, but now you must show your brains as well." Bryan looked to Jak to see that he and Daxter both had on assuring grins. "Frankly, I think she's pushy; but I'm not de' boss. Beat dis' test and de' third piece of de' seal will be revealed."

"Seal?" asked Bryan.

"Yeah, Daxter and I have been collecting the pieces of it for a while now, but that will be over after this." said Jak.

"Onin asks dat' all other visitors must wait outside, fore Jak must have complete concentration if he must complete this test." spoke Pecker.

Hana nodded in compliance. "Understood." With that, she turned and left through the entrance.

Bryan followed her example. "Good luck to ya Jak, give us a call when we're good to go."

Jak gave a thumbs up. "Thanks, Bryan, will do."

Bryan left the tent and met up with Hana who stood outside and looked up at the starry sky. "What are you looking at?" She did not answer. Bryan did not wait for an answer. Instead, he changed the subject. "Y'know, it's kinda a good thing that your weird world traveling hocus pocus is out of whack. This way, we can go to other worlds that and prevent them from getting swallowed by Heartless."

"Perhaps."

"So that explains it." Bryan and Hana jerked around to see Kor leaving the tent behind them. "You two are from another world, what are you doing here?"

Bryan looked to Hana and back at Kor. "Look old man, I don't know what you're talking about."

"Hide it if you want, but your secret's out." he said. "I do not know why you're here or how, but the existence of other worlds should have been kept secret to other worlds." He advanced to them and stood in front of Bryan. "Whatever the reason is, you have no right to meddle in the affairs of other worlds."

"Hey, back off." said Bryan. "We've done nothing wrong."

Kor's expression changed to one of distaste. "You do not belong here; you should leave this world and go back to where you came from."

Bryan looked back at Kor with a stern look on his face to show that his words would not sway him. He kept this look until he saw something move out of the corner of his eye. Bryan turned and tried to locate it. It was a Heartless; a smaller one. "Damn!" Keeping his hood up, Bryan looked to Hana. "Wait here!" he spoke before he turned back in the direction of the Heartless. The Heartless started a chase as it began to run away from Bryan. Bryan followed close behind it as it lead him to an open area in the bazaar complete vacant of people. Bryan came to a quick stop as he corned the Heartless here. "I got you now you lil' bastard!"

The Heartless turned and faced Bryan as more suddenly appeared out of the ground and the air and began to surround him. Damn, I've been ambushed!" Bryan held his hand out and called his Keyblade to his hand. Holding it with both hands, Bryan watched them as he waited for the first one to pounce. Eventually, one did. A Heartless Knight leaped at Bryan and swung its sword down on him. Bryan was prepared for the attack and pushed it away with his Keyblade before he cut it in half at the waist. The next one attacked right after. It was a larger Heartless, a Defender. It spun its shield as the eyes lit up with red and launched a fireball at Bryan. Bryan quickly moved out of the path of the projectile flame, which managed to singe his cloak, and put his guard back up. Another Knight swung its weapon at Bryan, but he was able to parry the attack and at the same time, kick the smaller Heartless Shadow away from him.

Bryan quickly finished off the Knight and began to seek out his next target. That's when he noticed a smaller red Heartless flying above. It was hovering around doing nothing for the longest time, but now a small red spark appeared over its head and launched a fireball at Bryan. "What the-!" Bryan quickly dodge rolled out of the way as the fireball hit the ground. "Dammit!" Even at this point, he was still outnumbered. The remaining Heartless began to close in on him as he backed up with his Keyblade out in front. He grunted as he viewed his odds. The next moment, the Heartless Shadow leaped towards Bryan. Bryan reacted quickly, he raised his Keyblade and swung at the Heartless with all his might, as a result, he destroyed the Heartless, and two black blades shot out from his Keyblade. These blades launched towards the other Heartless and cut right through them and they all turning into black dust. These blades diminished after destroying the Heartless. Bryan was shocked. He had no idea what he did that caused that. He examined his Keyblade afterwards to see nothing different. "What was that?"

"Pitch-Black Fangs." Bryan swung his head around as he tried to locate the owner of the voice. He turned completely around to find what appeared to be a woman shrouded in a black cloak. She was leaning up against the wall with her right elbow resting in the palm of her left hand as her chin sat on her fingers. "It's a fitting name for a skill of a mad wolf like you, wouldn't you agree?"

Bryan could not see her face, but her long white hair was a very notable feature along with her rather wicked smile. He raised his Keyblade to her with the tip pointed at her face. "Who are you?" She did not answer. "Are you the one controlling the Heartless?"

"Me? Control those nasty creatures?" She laughed. Bryan grunted. "Bryan Antix, I think you and I can benefit from one another."

"What do you mean…?"

"You have potential." she said as she lifted herself off the wall and took a few steps forward. "And I have the power you need."

"What?" This confused him. What power? What is she talking about?

"Bryan!" Bryan turned around to see Hana. Hana looked at Bryan and then to the mysterious woman. Bryan also fixated his eyes on the woman as she gave a smile of pleasure to Hana as began to walk backwards into a portal that appeared behind her and vanished.

Bryan dropped his arm as his Keyblade vanished from his hand. He looked back to Hana. "What are you doing here?"

"What happened here?"

Bryan looked around at the damage. There were only minor damages like the places damaged by fireballs and the two ditches where the black blades dug into the ground. "There were Heartless here."

"Who was that person?"

"I don't know."

"Was she controlling them?"

"No."

"How do you know?"

"She said so."

"Do you believe everything people say to you?"

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"Forget it." She motioned with her head. "Come, Jak's done with his test."

"Did he succeed?"

"Find out." Both Bryan and Hana left the battlefield behind as they returned to Onin's tent. Kor was already inside as Hana and Bryan entered. Jak was kneeling in front of Onin with Daxter standing at his side.

"Hey guys, where have ya' been, my buddy just scored." said Daxter.

"Behold, de' Seal of Mar is now complete!" spoke Pecker as an object assembled itself in front of Jak. Jak took it in hands with satisfaction as Pecker continued. "Onin says: the three artifacts you retrieved from the mountain temple-" Pecker suddenly squawked in the middle of his sentence. "Are relics from an ancient light tower." Bryan and Hana listened to Pecker's explanation as well. "Old songs tell how dis' light tower once shined down on da' actual site of Mar's Tomb." Bryan looked to Hana. "I sing one of these songs for you!" Pecker said proudly. Pecker began to sing at a high pitch that made everyone cringe every time he hit a high note.

"Whoa there iron lungs, just tell us what we need to do." Jak said as he cut Pecker off, which was relief to everyone.

"Cretins with no taste, huh?" Pecker spat. Bryan began to notice that Kor was leaving the tent and he followed him with is eyes with suspicion. Onin began to make gestures and a blue light shined from her hand as Pecker interprets. "You must take da' three artifacts to Mar's Gate; only den' will de' light tower rise and reveal de' tomb.

"Sounds good, thanks guys." Jak turned to his party. "c'mon guys, we got our next assignment."

"Just one moment, Jak!" called Pecker as everyone was about to leave. "Onin would like the boy and girl to approach her." Bryan and Hana exchanged glances and, without hesitation, approached Onin. "Please, come, come, come and sit down." Hana sat down on her legs in a common fashion in her family and Bryan did the same. "Be close so dat' Onin can have a good look at you too."

"But, isn't Onin blind?" asked Bryan.

"Onin says: she does not wish to see what is on the surface, but what is in de' heart." spoke Pecker. Bryan and Hana sat patiently and watched Onin as she held her hands out towards the two. Jak and Daxter viewed the situation from behind Bryan and Hana. After a few seconds, Onin began making gestures. "Onin says dat' both of you are very lucky to be possessors of da' 'key'." Bryan and Hana exchanged glanced again. "She says der' is much potential within both of you, especially you, Bryan."

"Me?How?"

"Onin says you must find your true potential yourself."

"What does she mean by this?"

"I don't know, is' all gibberish to me."

Bryan and Hana joined Jak and Daxter outside the tent. "What was all that mumbo-jumbo about?" asked Daxter.

"It's kind of a long story." said Bryan. "For another time."

"It's also a private subject." said Hana.

"Hm, well I won't pry." said Jak. "If we're all ready, we can get going."

"Sure." responded Bryan. As Jak went to prep their ride, Bryan turned to Hana.

"You felt the same way too, about Kor?" she said.

Bryan nodded. "There's something about him that doesn't settle right with me about him."

Hana put her hood up. "Yes, there is defiantly something about him that he is hiding."

Jak got the vehicle up and running and waited for Bryan and Hana to get situated before taking off and flying away from Onin's hut. For Bryan, a number of things took place that made him think really hard. One of them was what Onin said about him having potential. Those words also tied in to what happened when he was battling the Heartless and he gained new ability. Does he have some special powers that he was unaware of that the Keyblade can unlock? Furthermore, who was that woman? What does she mean that they can benefit from each other? What power does she have that he could possible want? These questions could possibly be answered with time as they continue on their adventure, but some questions could be answered very soon. For instance, who is Mar and what could his tomb hold that is of value? Bryan will find out soon enough.


	10. Chapter 9

KINGDOM HEARTS

LIMITLESS UNIVERSE:

THE BEGINNING

CHAPTER 9: SCATTERED PIECES TO BE PUT TOGETHER

The book that Yen Cid gave to Sora not only gave useful information but it also filled the role of entertainment for Sora as he continued to flip through the pages. Sora and the other have been traveling nonstop for a long time and they seem to be lucky that nothing has assaulted them yet. It was Donald's shift at the helm with Goofy next in line. "Guys this book is amazing; I swear all of the worlds are in this book."

"Well, it does belong to Master Yen Cid." said Donald.

"Yeah, but it's amazing, not one of them was missed…the Pride Lands, Halloween Town, Wonder Land, even Twilight Town is listed here." said Sora as he blew through the pages.

"We should take time to visit all of the other worlds." said Goofy. "I would like to take more pictures, y'know."

"We can't do that." protested Donald. "We must preserve the balance of the worlds as much as possible.

"Donald's right, Goofy." Sora closed the book. "We can't think of this as a field trip to go sightseeing." Sora stood up from his seat. "We'll go to as many worlds as we need to and you can take pictures of those worlds."

"Gwarsh, I hope so." Goofy looked at his camera.

Suddenly, the computer started to beep. Sora jumped into the chair in front of it and began to examine the sound. "Looks like we're getting a call." Sora pushed a button that displayed the caller information. "It's Leon."

"Put it on screen!" said Donald.

Sora pressed more buttons and a hologram monitor appeared on the dome window of the gummi ship with Leon's face on it. "Hey Leon, what's up?"

"Well Sora, I went through Ansem's computer and I found some information that I want to share with you." he responded. "This is a private line, so no one will know about this but us."

"Is this illegal or something?"

"The information that I am sharing with you is something that the A-Laws would find suspicious and would most likely try to control."

Sora glanced at Donald and Goofy then back to the monitor. "Gotcha'; hit us with it, Leon."

Leon nodded his head. In a second, several windows of information and images appeared on the Gummi ship's window. However, the one display that stuck out among the rest had an emblem on it. It looked like a golden pair of wings with a golden halo around its top. Behind it was a blue circle with words inside it encircled by a reef around the rim of the image. The golden wings were in the way so Sora was not able to read the whole thing, but there was a title. "Celestial…Being…?"

"Gwarsh, ain't these guy the A-Laws are lookin' for?" asked Goofy.

"That's right." Leon responded. "For some reason, there's a ton of data on them in Ansem's Computer."

"What can we get out of this information?" asked Jiminy. He pulled out his journal and rested the tip of his pencil on the page.

"A lot, actually." Leon pulled up another window of information. "According to this, Celestial Being is a private, armed organization that carries out armed interventions in the middle of battles."

That last part confused Sora a bit. "Why would they want to interfere in someone else's fight?"

"For the sake of stopping war."

"Stopping war?"

"That's what the data says."

Sora, Donald, Goofy, and Jiminy exchanged glances. Ryutaros suddenly appeared on the ground in the silence. "These guys are silly, why would those soldier guys want to get at them so much?"

Another screen appeared on the window. This one was a still image of what appeared to be a robot flying through the air attacking A-Laws mobile suits. "Because Celestial Being is in possession of these mobile suits called Gundams, which they use to carry out their armed interventions."

Sora repeated the word. "Gundams?" Then he started wondering if he said that right.

"It looks different from the robots back on Radiant Garden." commented Donald.

"Hold on." Something came to Sora's mind that did not make sense to him. "If these guys are trying to prevent war, why are the A-Laws opposing them?"

"Because from the A-Laws' point of view, these interventions look like indiscriminant acts of terrorism." Leon answered.

"So then, are they the good guys?" asked Donald.

"Or are they the bad guys?" asked Goofy.

"I'm not sure, but I have a feeling that we might find out soon enough." said Leon. "If things keep going the way they are, I believe that we may see exactly what this struggle between Celestial Being and the A-Laws really is and what they are trying to accomplish."

Jiminy recorded all of this information down in his log, then a question arose. "Hold on there, Leon. Tell me why Ansem's computer knows so much about the struggle with Celestial Being if they're a private organization."

"I'm not so sure myself." said Leon.

"Who's in charge of this group?" asked Sora. "Do we know that much?"

Leon brought up another picture depicting an old man. "The founder of Celestial Being is Aeolia Schenberg, a renowned scientist who worked in the field of solar energy."

"I've never seen this guy before." said Sora.

"He's a scientist, maybe Ansem knew him." said Donald.

Leon shook his head. "Unlikely."

"Huh?" Donald was confused. Ansem was a scientist that researched many things, especially the heart, it seemed natural that he would have connections to those who would help fund his research, or at least add to it, but why is it unlikely that they would know each other?

"Why is that, Leon?" asked Sora.

"Because Aeolia Schenberg has been dead for over 200 years."

Sora and the crew were silent, even the usually annoying Imagin that nested itself in Sora did not say anything. Not because they were surprised, but because they had no idea how to respond to this kind of information. Ansem the Wise died only a few years ago and he was not very old, compared to someone like Master Yen Sid that is. How could he have known someone that existed generations ago? Sora scratched his head. "So many mysteries…because we know only so much about the worlds"

"You're right about that Sora." said Leon. "I'm looking into the rest of the information now. You might be able to find some more interesting things along the way while you look for this person you're looking for."

"You mean Zeta?" asked Sora.

"From what you told us, this guy must be a very important person to be recognized by this man, Yen Sid." Leon added. "He must be very knowledgeable."

"He might be." Sora nodded. "We'll find out when we get to him."

Leon nodded. "Good luck, Sora. "I'm ending this communication; keep the data I sent to you." With that, the screen with Leon's video shut off and the information that had been flying across their monitor vanished.

Sora took a breath. "That's a lot to take in." He reclined in his chair and put his hands behind his head. "Who are Celestial Being really?"

Goofy put his finger on his lip. "Y'know, I'm starting to think these Celestial Being guys are the good guys."

"What makes you think that, Goofy?" asked Donald.

"Well, Leon says that they want to stop fighting, right?" recalled Goofy. "Wouldn't it be nice if everyone stopped fighting?"

"I'm all for it, but some of my peeps might not be happy with that." commented Ryutaros.

"Other Imagins?" asked Sora.

"Yep."

"Well if these guys want to stop fighting, then why do the A-Laws want to stop them?" asked Donald.

"All the more reason to believe that the A-Laws are the bad guys." said Sora.

Jiminy hopped up onto the controls. "Now hold on there, let's not just label the A-Laws as bad people right off the bat."

"What do ya mean, Jiminy?" asked Sora. "You saw how arrogant that Patrick guy acted, right?"

"But don't you remember Soma Peris?" he asked. "She was nice enough to let us go."

Sora stopped when he remembered her. "Oh yeah, you have a point there; but, what are you trying to say, Jiminy?"

"Let's look at this from the A-Laws point of view like Leon suggested earlier." started Jiminy. "Remember when Leon said that the A-Laws were trying to stop terrorists?"

"Yeah, they were talking about Celestial Being."

"Precisely." Jiminy looked around the cockpit as if addressing everyone. "For the A-Law's point of view, Celestial being is a terrorist organization out to get involved in conflicts and do harm. The people in that division are only there because they believe they're doing what's right."

"I see." said Sora. "I guess it's better to see things from every angle."

"Yes, that's the best way to make sense of everything."

"Well, we know the A-Law's point of view, but what's Celestial Beings point of view?" Sora pondered. "There's got to be more."

"Maybe we should go find them and ask them." suggested Goofy.

"We should find the Den Liner." said Ryutaros.

"The Den Liner?" Sora asked with an eyebrow raised. "What's that?"

"It's a train that travels through time and space!" explained Ryutaros. "It can go anywhere at any point!"

"That sounds cool, how do you know about this train?"

"Let's just say I'm a regular on that ride."

"So uh, that train is like your home, right?" asked Goofy.

"More or less."

Donald decided to voice his opinion. "Let's find this train and dump him then, do us all a favor."

"Hey come on guys, we have a mission here." reminded Sora. "And it's priority number one. We'll just have to let Ryutaros stick around until we can find Zeta."

"Alright." pouted Donald.

"And maybe he can tell us things about Celestial Being that we don't know about." said Goofy.

"Hey, that sounds great!" said Ryutaros. His sandy body travelled over to Sora. "I like you guys, so I was really hoping I could hang around you guys for a bit longer." Donald rolled his eyes. "Hey, can I stay in your body?" he asked Sora.

"On one condition." Sora suggested. "You have to let me decide when you can control me, or else I'll come off as a psycho to everyone."

Ryutaros held out his hand. "Deal!"

Sora reached out. "Okay!" As he was about to shake hands with Ryutaros Sora's hand passed right through his hand as he tried to grab it. Each of the, looked at their own hands in disappointment that physical contact was near impossible.

"Y'know, if we formed a contract, that wouldn't happen." said Ryutaros.

"I'm…gunna have to pass on that."

Donald looked into the world maps to see their current position. "Sora, we're getting close to another familiar world."

Sora jumped forward and looked at Donald's map. "Twilight Town!" he said happily. Twilight Town is the place were Hayner, Pence, and Olette live. Sora had not seen them since his last adventure, which was years ago. It would be great to have the chance to see how they're doing. Sora got excited. "Let's land!"

"Hey, what was that about priority?" questioned Donald. "We need to find this guy for Yen Cid before the Heartless get to him. The more time we spend not finding him, the closer the Heartless become; you should pay more attention to what needs to be done, Sora!"

Sora's smile dropped and he nodded. "You're right Donald; I did say that. Yen Cid's counting on us." Sora dropped back in his seat. Besides, if they find this guy, maybe then Destiny Islands will be saved. What this person, Zeta is capable of is still a mystery to Sora. He watched Twilight Town pass by them; or rather he watched them pass Twilight Town. He was not unhappy, Donald was right about the situation. Sora reclined. "Sorry about that, Donald."

"It's okay, Sora."

"It's true what they say; the needs of the many out weight the needs of the few." Sora crossed his legs on the controls. "Onward we go."

"Well so much for my needs." Ryutaros crossed his arms.


	11. Chapter 10

KINGDOM HEARTS

LIMITLESS UNIVERSE:

THE BEGINNING

CHAPTER TEN: THE BATTLE BETWEEN IMMORTALS

When Saburo finally regained consciousness, he was greeted by the sun's rays that appeared to be shining from a hole in the ceiling of what appeared to be a type of hut or temple. He was not sure, but the overall design of it had a similar feel to his own home. He sat up on the empty floor and glanced around for a moment. The first thing for him was to establish where he was. The obvious thing for him to come to terms with was that he was in a hut of some kind that was completely vacant with a hole in the ceiling that was most likely his doing. Wait, if he fell through the ceiling from the sky, shouldn't he be dead? Or paralyzed from the neck down at the very least? That's when he remembered the barrier that his father gave him. It must have protected him. "Well, this could be so much worse."

Saburo got to his feet. His body ached from combat in the streets. He stretched a bit before deciding that he should leave through the doorway and see where he was and how far from the city it was located. When he walked through the door, the sun hit is eyes hard and he had to shade them so they had time to adjust. When that happened, his eyes were fixated on the biggest and exotic training grounds he had ever seen and it was all constructed from stone. "Nice!" He never knew where this location was, but now that he does, it dawned on him that maybe he should show up here from time to time. He slowly descended the steps outside the hut and let his eyes wonder around the area in this bright, sunny day.

Bright, sunny day? That cannot be right. That's when it hit him; the last thing Saburo remembered was that the entire world was being engulfed in a dark cloud. What happened to the Heartless? His father? His brother? What about his sister? Something was not right about the situation. Saburo wanted to call out names, but he was sure that it would be a futile effort. Where exactly was he, then?

Saburo advanced in the dirt ground at the bottom of the stairs, but suddenly stopped when he noticed a shadow passing over him. The Heartless storm? Saburo immediately looked up as he expected to see the same ominous clouds from before, but he did not. Instead, what he saw was what appeared to be man jumping, or flying overhead. The man landed on the ground several feet in front of Saburo with his back against him. On is back were a pair of enormous swords, one with a curved blade and one with a straight one. The man removed each of these blades from his back and began spinning them around his body and performing a type of martial arts form. When he was done, he turned in place to face Saburo with both swords still held firmly in his hands.

So much just happened at once that it took Saburo a moment to register the situation. This man just appeared out of the sky carrying two large swords that would normally take everything an average man had with both hands to wield and he looks like one of those average men. Actually, that's not true. This man's appearance was far from average. He was adorning colorful clothing and with black pants shoes usually worn by martial arts students. On his left wrist was a golden arm band in the shape of a dragon's head and he wore ear rings. Also, this man's hair was red and pushed back. Finally, there was the man's face, he was clearly someone of an Asian ethnic background, but that did not change the fact that his face was, for lack of a better word, pretty. It was strange for Saburo to describe another man as being pretty, but this man had a certain feminine charm to his appearance that made him quite desirable by the opposite sex. On top of all that, his skills with the large weapons were clearly masterful, as if he had been training in the arts from birth.

Saburo took this first encounter to be a little threatening, so he stepped back with his right foot to prepare for any oncoming attacks, but the man did not attack, instead, he stood straight up and addressed the person before him. "Who are you, what are you doing here on these grounds?"

He spoke another language, one that Saburo was not familiar with. "…what? The hell are you saying?"

"English?" The man replied in English with a strong accent to Saburo's surprise. "You are clearly not from around here."

The treat of hostilities began to diminish as more words came out of this man's mouth. "I guess I'm not. Where is this place? Where's Collision City from here?"

"I do not know this place you speak of." The vibrantly dressed swordsman replied. "You are at the temple of my master, Nagui Tensai. Only his students train here."

"You don't know where Collision City is?"

"Even if I did, I'm sure there would be nothing there for you." The man replied. "Very little remains of the once proud civilizations of the past."

"Of the past? What do you mean?"

"I mean what I say."

Saburo clearly did not understand. Collision City is clearly nowhere nearby, and this man speaks of such places like they're ancient history. "Dammit, I'm confused; where exactly am I? What's the best name you can give me for the area I'm in?"

"Bujingai."

Saburo has never heard of the place. It was time to think about the possibilities, here people speak a different language, Collision City is nowhere in the area, which is called Bujingai, and then there's the haunting line where he states 'very little remains of the once proud civilizations of the past'. Key words being: the past. This brought Saburo to two conclusions: one, he was in the future where everyone is dead; and two, he was on another world, perhaps somewhere his father had seen. Or has he? "Does the name Zeta Ishikawa mean anything to you?"

"No, I'm afraid not."

Saburo put his hands on his hips. "Well, this is interesting."

The temple resident tilted his head as he inspected Saburo. "From the looks of your clothes, you do not appear to be a combatant."

Saburo locked his previously wandering eyes back onto his conversation partner. "Oh, you'd be surprised. Contrary to my current get-up I've been a practitioner of martial arts for about fifteen years now."

"Who is your master?"

"My father, Zeta Ishikawa."

"From another temple?"

"Let's just say from a land, far far away."

"Interesting." The Chinese warrior rubbed his chin. "Tell me, do you know anything about the black creatures?"

Saburo's attention was grasped instantly again. "The black creatures?"

"Yes, the ones that have suddenly appeared and threaten the lives of those who remain." The man put his swords on his back and crossed his arms. "They are otherworldly to me."

"You can say that again." Saburo replied. "Yeah, I know about those things; they're Heartless."

"Heartless?"

"Yeah, they hunt down people for their hearts."

"From the way you speak of them, I take it you are not their ally."

"No way in hell, thanks to recent events, it's my job to fight those things." Saburo explained.

The man nodded. "I think we can benefit from each other, can you help me fight them?"

"If you can find a way to get me home."

"I think there may be a way I can do that; an alliance it is." The man put his fist in his palm in front of him and bowed. "I am Lau Wong."

"Saburo Ishikawa." He returned the gesture. "What's the plan, Lau?"

"We go to the city, to take on these creatures." Lau removed a sword from his back and held it out to Saburo. "Arm yourself, young Saburo; the monsters here are vicious."

Saburo put up his hand in denying of the weapon. He knew he still had the keyblade and his father was willing to give up half of his key chains to him, which gave him variety. "I'm good, I got my own weapon."

Lau nodded. "We take off then." Lau grabbed Saburo and pulled him close to his body. "Hold tight." Clutching his partner, Lau leaped into the air and proceeded to fly, or glide to their next destination.

…

The trip was fast as Lau landed in the barren streets of an empty city. He released Saburo from his hold shortly after. "Damn, how did you do that?"

"Centuries of training." Lau inspected the city. "This is the forsaken city."

Saburo took time to view the city for himself It was clearly deprived of life. There was no one in sight, not even animals roam the streets. "What happened here?"

"In my absence, it appears that my friend had become a monster…"

"Wait, your friend?" Saburo asked. "The bad guy is your friend?"

"Was…" Lau replied, "But that was many years ago when I went into exile."

"Who is he?"

"Rei Jenron." Lau answered. "He is one of my master's greatest students, and an expert martial artist."

Saburo crossed his arms. "This is quite the interesting situation you've found yourself in, Lau. Any ideas as to why he did it?"

Lau looked to Saburo. "I don't, but that is why I'm here to find out." Lau pointed down the street. "We advance onward."

"Sounds like a plan." Saburo followed alongside Lau as they made haste on foot. Saburo saw more of the city, but it all looked the same, like an oversized graveyard. The looming grey skyscrapers gave off the appearance of a giant maze and they were the rats traversing it. Saburo came to an abrupt halt when he saw something moving in the corner of his eye. "Lau, wait! There's someone here!"

Lau stopped ahead of Saburo. "What is it? Have you seen something?"

Saburo looked around. "I saw someone moving around us."

"Are you sure it was a person?"

"What I saw was light blue."

Lau looked around the area to identify what Saburo believed he saw. "I see nothing, but I do get the feeling that we are being watched."

"Yeah it's uncomfortable, isn't it?" Saburo positioned his feet for combat and stood back to back with Lau. "Does your buddy wear light blue?"

"Unlikely."

Was he just fooling himself into seeing things as he looked around hoping to find something, or did he actually see someone moving around them? Saburo was not sure anymore as the area was still as vacant as it was when they got there, but peering into a dark alley, something did move. Saburo pointed into the alley. "There, something was moving in the dark."

Lau joined alongside him. "Are you sure? If there is something there, then don't trust it. There should be no one left."

Both of them stood ready for what was to come. Suddenly, out of the darkness, came a single small Heartless, about knee height compared to Lau and Saburo. "The hell?" Both of them watched it emerge and approach them.

"It is a black creature."

"Heartless."

"Yes, Heartless."

"But it's pathetic." Saburo kicked it over onto its back. "Look at it. There were bigger ones back where I live!"

Lau looked at the insignificant threat that was the single Heartless, but he looked back into the alley just in time to see a much bigger one leap out at them. Lau moved between the Heartless and Saburo as he drew his sword and cleaved through it with ease. Eventually, more Heartless began to appear out of the sides of the buildings and the ground they stood on. "Are these the ones you spoke of?"

"Close enough!" Saburo clenched his right hand and a black light shot out from it which produced his keyblade.

Lau was quick to take action. With both of his weapons, he cleaved through the Heartless with ease as he displayed great skill and technique with his two massive weapons. If two Heartless attack, he would cleave through one with the sword in his right hand, and the next with the one in his left. If a third came his way, he would continue moving his body in the direction he swung his sword as he used the momentum of swinging them to bring them back around and cut down his next adversary. Of course, his blades were not the only pieces to his arsenal. Lau tossed the sword in his right hand up into the air and held his hand out at an attacking Heartless. "Gouenken!" he called out and a large ball of fire launched from his hand and incinerated the Heartless along with anything standing behind it. Shortly after, Lau caught his sword as it fell from above and continued the fight.

Saburo's tactics were more acrobatic. Saburo would cut down two or three Heartless before throwing himself into a butterfly twist to close the distance between him and his next target before cutting that one down. With his own magic, he was also able to destroy Heartless from a distance, but not with the same destructive power as Lau. When they had made a big difference in the opposing force's numbers, Saburo turned to Lau. "You're looking pretty good over there, Lau; are like a wushu master, or something?"

"Wushu is my primary style, but I have not been granted the title of master." Lau replied.

"You'll get there, buddy." Saburo raised his black keyblade and threw himself back into the action. This time he tried his best to keep up with Lau.

The Heartless finally retreated when there was a sound of oncoming footsteps. Lau was confused as he looked around to where the Heartless vanished to, but his attention turned to the producer of the footsteps. It was a man with long white hair, black and red garments designed with traditional Chinese pictures like white tigers on his chest and red clouds on his coat tails. Lau recognized this man. "Rei!"

Saburo stopped looking for lingering Heartless and turned around to view the same person that Lau had noticed. "Rei? He's Rei?"

The man laughed. "I'm grateful that you remember my name, old friend."

"Rei, why have you done this?" Lau questioned. "What has become of you?"

"My eyes were opened, Lau!" Rei responded. "My true path was set in front of me and I took it." Rei extended his hand. "I am destined for greatness, Lau. Knowing this, I did what was necessary to reach that goal!"

"So you joined forces with the Heartless, isn't that right?" Saburo questioned.

Rei raised both arms. "It is true that I let my heart welcome the darkness into it, but now I am in complete control! Our master was a fool for not know the limitless potential that darkness held, which is why I got rid of him." He slowly lowers his hands and smirked at the two warriors. "The only thing that could possibly make my power greater is your weapon." He pointed to Saburo. "The keyblade!"

Saburo looked to his keyblade and back at Rei. "He wants the keyblade?"

"A weapon with that much power deserves a master like myself and yet it is wasted on a child like you!" Rei stated. "Hand it over, and your fight will be over; I might even be willing to return you home!"

Saburo looked back to his weapon. It is true that if he gives it over to Rei, he won't be obligated to fight the Heartless anymore. He did not want any part of this in the first place. All of the events that conspired following the keyblade just happened. Besides, if he gives it up, he might be able to return home, but is there a home left to return to? Saburo looked to Rei, who extended his hand to him. Lau looked to Saburo with increasing anticipation as to Saburo's decision. If he kept it, he would fight on with Lau against Rei and the Heartless in what could be a losing battle.

"I have the power to do all I have stated before," Rei stated. "Make the right choice, young man."

Saburo announced his answer. "I could just give it over to you, couldn't I?" Rei's grin grew. "You do seem quite powerful after all."

"You would willingly give up your weapon to Rei?!" asked Lau.

"Quiet, Lau!" Rei called. "The boy knows what he wants."

"However, this weapon chose me to be its wielder against the Heartless." Saburo raised his weapon. "And my father entrusted me with his keyblades! I'm sure there's a reason for why everything has happened to me and I plan to fight through it to the end!" Rei's grin faded at Saburo's answer. "Besides, I'm having too much fun!" Saburo spun his keyblade around and held it firmly in a combat ready stance.

Lau smiled at Saburo's commitment. "Looks like my partner isn't as weak hearted as you thought, Rei!" Lau drew his weapons again.

"So you have decided to fight a losing battle?" Rei asked. "Very well, keyblade warrior, I will send both you and this sorry excuse for an immortal to the oblivion where you two belong!" Rei raised his hand and created a portal in the sky above. From the portal came crashing down a large beast, twice the size of Saburo, adorn with Chinese garbs. It had hoofed feet, the skull of a ram for a head, and a large, golden ornament on its back. The creature was large, and took steps that shook the ground below it. "Meet Trogdar, one of the great guardians of the Gates of Hell, the bringer of your demise!" Lau and Saburo stepped back as the demon approached. "Farewell, old friend." With that, Rei opened a portal in the darkness and left the two warriors to their fates.

"Rei!" Lau called out, but in vain as he had already left.

"Think we can take 'em, Lau?" Saburo asked with confidence.

"Your resolve earlier has given me comfidence." Lau gripped his weapons firmly. "We will bring down this obstacle, and defeat Rei!"

Saburo lowered his body. "Sounds like a plan!"

Saburo and Lau both ran forth into combat against the massive foe. Trogdar raised its massive hand and attempted to bring it down on Lau. Lau raised both of his sword as the hand came down on both of them. The massive strength that Trogdar possessed pushed Lau down onto one knee. In the time the monster was distracted, Saburo leaped onto Lau's shoulders and leaped into the air with a full twist before landing on the back of the monster's long neck. Saburo began letting out strikes onto the head and it began to crack. Noticing the damage it was taking, Trogdar shoot its head and forced Saburo to jump off of it and back onto the ground. Lau was released from the pressure of the mosnter's hand and pushed it away before landing a three strike combo on the chest of the demon. Trogdar attempted to swipe Lau away, but Lau avoided it with a back flip.

Saburo smirked. "This guy obviously has power to spare, but its way too slow." Saburo spun his weapon around his body. "If we can take advantage of that, we'll bring this guy down in no time!"

"Then let us attack!" Lau leaped at the monster and swung his swords at its arms, which it used to protect itself. Saburo ran at Trogdar and slid under its feet. As he did, he swung for the demon's left leg and sliced into it. Trogdar felt to its knee on that leg and let out a horrible cry. Out of rage, it tried to grab Lau, but Lau struck its hand away and opened Trogdar for a powerful attack. "Dankuuken!" Lau swung his swords at Trogdar and a powerful shockwave was unleashed upon it, cutting through its body and performing extensive damage. Lau noticed that Saburo had returned to his side. "Now, let us perform the finishing blow while it is weak!"

"Got it!" Saburo nodded.

"I'll focus its attacks on me, while I do, go for its head!" Lau leaped at Trogdar and swung his swords at it simultaneously. As he did, the demon was completely focused on Lau, but could not do much with its mobility limited.

Saburo watched as Lau fought fiercely with the demon as its wide attacks were directed at Lau, but these wide attacks made it difficult to get close. He stepped back and held his weapon close as he began to plan the final attack, then something came to him. An ability that his keyblade held formed in his head and he looked down at his shadow. He did not know how it came to him, but it was perhaps the best solution. Saburo raised his keyblade and swung it backwards and down towards the ground. As it swung against the surface of the ground, the keyblade literally picked up its own shadow and hurled it at the demon. The shadow struck the demon's skull-like head and shattered it. The loose of its head made the demon go limp. Lau backed away as Saburo's keyblade's shadow returned to it.

Trogdar's body began to evaporate into blackness as its power left it. The demon had been defeated and the fight was over. Saburo let out a breath of relief. "We got it…"

Lau returned his weapons to his back and joined Saburo's side. "You hold power over the shadows. You are quite an amazing warrior."

"Actually, I didn't know I had that power until then." Saburo looked at his keyblade. "It was as if my keyblade communicated its abilities to me."

"That weapon of yours is truly magnificent." Lau commented. "It is not wonder Rei is drawn by its power."

Saburo nodded. "It kicks ass, I'll bet that the more I fight with this weapon, the more of its power it will open up to me." Suddenly, Saburo saw the same blue object move in the corner of his eye. He turned his head and fixed his eyes on it. "Lau, look!" Saburo pointed to a building where he saw a woman standing on the fire escape.

Lau looked to the woman and made a dash for the building. He quickly ran up the side of it until he got to a sign with the building's name on it and jumped off of it onto the lower platform of the fire escape. For there, he jumped up to the platform to where the woman stood. He stood facing her and pulled out his sword, which he pointed at her. The woman stepped back in shock. To Lau, this made her out to be a noncombatant. The beautiful woman had blue hair tied back behind her head and wore a blue outfit decorated with white plants and a golden bird. In addition to her outfit, she had transparent silk draped over her arms that faded from blue to white at the ends of it. She looked to Lau and spoke in a soft voice. "I know you, you're Lau…"

Saburo made his way up to their level to view the situation. "I told you we were being watched!"

Lau moved closer. "Who are you?"

The woman raised a hand to her chest. "My name is Yohfa, I once loved Rei."

"You loved Rei?" Saburo said with surprise.

"I mean you no harm," she assured. "In fact, I have come to support you both." Lau and Saburo exchanged glances. "I have the power to create portals that lead to anywhere in the world, and to the world of others."

"The world of others?" Lau asked. Saburo was also surprised to hear that. Does this mean that she has the power to return him home?

"I can take you to Rei's castle, but not yet." she said. "Surely you have become worn from your battle and require rest; I can take you back to the temple."

Neither Saburo nor Lau knew exactly what to say nor knew if they could fully trust her, but it is true that they have exhausted their strength. Her timing was convenient. "Okay, if you could please do so." Saburo said in compliance.

Yohfa nodded and, with a wave of her arms, created a circular portal in what appeared to be a golden mirror frame. Yohfa passed through first. Both of them saw this as a sign of trust and passed through behind her. They could really use the rest, and when they were finished, they could stop Rei and end the Heartless threat on this world and the next.


	12. Chapter 11

KINGDOM HEARTS

LIMITLESS UNIVERSE:

THE BEGINNING

CHAPTER ELEVEN: CELESTIAL BEING

Sora had been at the wheel for a long time and the length of the trip was getting to him. As he was keeping his eyes forward at the endless space, his eyes would pull themselves shut and he would have to force them open. He had been staring into what looked like the same empty space for so long, he often wondered if they were going the right way. Goofy was with him in the cockpit. He was fitting the pictures he had taken into a photo album one by one and grouping them by world, which was easy since they had only been to one world. Goofy's shift was over, so it was alright for him to be laying around.

Donald came up from the lower deck and approached Sora from behind. "Sora, that's enough, let me take over."

"I'm alright, Donald." responded Sora.

"No, you're not, let me drive now."

Ryutaros fell out of Sora's body and became sand on the ground. "Hey, you want to hear a joke? It'll wake you up."

"Nah, I'm good." Sora responded.

Donald crossed his arms. "What's keeping you going?"

"I want to see the world we're supposed to stop at." he replied.

"I'll call you when we get there." Donald came up along Sora's side and grabbed the wheel. "Right now, you need to get some rest."

Jiminy jumped out of Sora's hood. "Donald's right, you need to be in top shape, especially if it comes down to a fight."

Sora sighed, but they were right. Everyone needed to be well rested, even if it comes down to fighting the Heartless. "Okay Donald, take over." Sora got up out of the seat and began to head below deck. Ryutaros tried to follow behind him, but Donald manages to keep him in the cockpit. It was below deck where there was a pair of bunk beds. Sora's was the one on bottom and to the left of the stairs. He threw his shoes off and tossed himself onto the bed. He put his hands behind his head and just stared at the mattress above him. Sora could not help but think about what he could be encountering next and what this new adventure will bring to him. Also, who is Decade and why is Riku chasing him? Whatever the answers may be, he knew he was about to get them soon. Sora closed his eyes and let himself doze off.

"Sora!"

Sora sprung up from his bed and looked around. He looked at his clock to see that he had only been asleep for about two hours, but the sudden alarm of Donald's voice made him wide awake. Donald called down to him again. Sora jumped into his shoes and fan up the stairs as fast as possible. "What's wrong Donald, are we being attacked?"

"No, look!" Donald pointed out the window towards the front of the ship.

Sora gazed in that direction to see an incredibly large black sphere right in front of them. Sora did not know what he was looking at, but he could tell that something was wrong with this picture. "What is it?"

"It looks like a whole world covered in Heartless!" Goofy said in a panic.

"But which one?" Sora said as he gazed at the sphere to see if he can identify any characteristics he could use to identify the world with.

"Judging by what the computer is telling us…it's Collision City…" Donald replied. With this knowledge, the crew looked to what remained of their destination as it lies ahead of them engulfed in dark clouds.

Jiminy jumped on the console of the ship. "Oh-no, the Heartless got here too?"

"This place, is where we were going?" Ryutaros asked.

"No…no…no, this can't be right!" Sora panicked. "What about Zeta?! That person who's supposed to help us is down there!"

"But Sora, if we get too close, we'll get swarmed by Heartless!" Goofy warned, "We have to move away!"

As soon as Donald started to pull away from the Heartless infested world, the alarm went off on the ship. "What is it?!" Sora asked Donald.

Donald looked at the radar. "Uh-oh! Hunters!"

"Hunters?!" Sora looked ahead of the gummi ship to see about a dozen X shaped Heartless flying at them. Following behind them were the weaker Heartless ships, but that did not lighten the situation. "Get us out of here!" Donald began to turn the ship around and fly as far away as possible when they started taking fire from the Heartless. In all of the commotion, Jiminy took refuge in Sora's hood again.

Ryutaros started running around from one end of the cockpit to the other in a panic. "Oh man, we are so fucked, people!"

"Shut up! I'll get us out of this!" Donald exclaimed as he relies on his many years of experiences with flying gummi ships to get them out of their current situation.

Unfortunately, the gun fire was not letting up and the ship began to take hits. Goofy covered his face in his hands as the situation became scarier for them, but he peaked through his fingers to see if the problem took a turn for the better just to see a Hunter closing in on them from behind. "Yikes, behind us!" he pointed.

Sora looked back to see the Hunter open up its fins and clamp down on the gummi ship. The shock that came after threw Sora out of his seat and onto his back. He quickly flipped himself over to see the Hunter's face staring into the cockpit as it closed its grip on them even more. "Guys, we need to do something—FAST!"

"She won't break free!" Donald called out as he pushed the ship to its limits.

"It's been nice knowing y'all!" Ryutaros announced.

Sora glared at their adversary and clenched his fist. "This is not how it all ends…this can't be…we still have things to accomplish…" Sora called forth is keyblade, "…and I still need to find Riku!" Just as Sora was ready to expect the worst, a huge blade came down out of nowhere and cut the Hunter's head from its clamp-like fins. As it flew clear of the gummi ship, a pink beam passed right through it and destroyed the head. "What the—?!"

Sora turned his head to the front of the gummi ship to see large, humanoid robots fly pass them and start firing upon the Heartless. One of them was a large, white robot with cannons mounted on its shoulders and a large gun in hand. Another was orange and it flew by in the shape of a plane at first, but transformed shortly after and started hailing down on the Heartless with a rapid-fire beam weapon. The third one was green and fired off shots from a distance at enemies too far for Sora to see on his own. The fourth one, the one that was wielding a blade, was white and blue and had a pair of cone shaped features on its shoulders and hovered around the gummi ship like an escort. Each one of them had a bright green light following behind them. "Gwarsh, who are they?" Goofy asked.

"I dunno, but those look a lot like those mobile suit things." Sora responded. "But they don't look like A-Laws."

"These guys saved us." commented Jiminy, who finally decided to come out of hiding.

Donald's eye followed the sword wielding mobile suit as it moved gracefully in between the gummi ship and the battle and turned to face them. Then it lifted its left arm and pointed behind them. "Huh? What's it doing?"

Goofy followed its finger and looked to see a ship in front of the gummi ship. "Hey guys, look at that!"

Sora, Donald, Jiminy, and Ryutaros all had their attentions gained by Goofy and looked to notice the same thing approaching them. "Is that their ship?" Donald asked.

"It's huge!" exclaimed Sora. Then he nudged Donald. "Donald, fly us over to it; I think he wants us to come aboard." Donald nodded to Sora and regain control of the ship as he flew them to their rescuers' transport. It was a large blue ship with wings out in front of its nose and stretched out behind the large containers that were attached to the sides of the ship. Both of them opened up and welcomed the gummi ship in. Following behind them were the different colored robot giants that also sought entrance into the ship the same way.

It did not take long for all four of the mobile suits and the gummi ship to all get in before the doors closed. Sora and the others waited until it was okay for them to leave the ship. "I wonder who's on this ship." Sora pondered.

Donald, Goofy, and Sora were all close to pressing themselves up against the dome-like cockpit window as they looked around the area for signs of being able to leave the ship. However, it was not long until four individuals in blue, green, purple, and orange body suits approached the ship. Following them was a small yellow robot. The one in the blue motioned to them. "Sora, they want us to come out." Jiminy announced from Sora's shoulder.

Sora nodded. "Okay." After opening the hatch, the crew of four exited the ship slowly and approached the others. Sora noticed that the four men with tinted helmet visors seemed confused to see him and the others and they each had one hand either behind their backs, or holding a gun in plain sight. "Uh, we come in peace?" Sora stated nervously thinking that these people have every intention of shooting them otherwise.

"Gwarsh, they're kinda scary lookin'." Goofy pointed out.

"Now I've seen everything." commented the man in the green. "I think it's safe guys." One by one, each of them began removing their helmets to reveal that they are in fact people. The man in the green appeared to be around Leon's age and had long brown hair. The man in the orange appeared to be a bit younger with black hair and darker shim, but his most captivating feature were the two different colored eyes; one gold and the other grey. The one in the blue had darker skin and messy black hair and appeared to be around the same age as Riku, if not, older. The last one in the purple was very feminine with purple hair cut cleanly right above his or her shoulders and very light skin. Sora will later admit that this person was very pretty. "Well, it's not too often that we come across a crew like this."

"I don't think we ever come across a crew like this." stated the man in the orange.

The man in the green approached Sora with a friendly smile. "So, what's your name, young man?"

"Uh, Sora." he answered.

The man extended his hand. "Nice to meet ya, name's Lockon Stratos."

It was probably one of the most unusual names that Sora has ever heard, but at the same time it sounded cool to him. Sora accepted the hand shake. "Same here."

Donald, seeing that it was safe, also approached Lockon. "I'm Donald Duck."

Goofy also join in the introductions. "And I'm Goofy."

"Man, you guys are like a traveling circus!" Lockon commented. "Come and meet my associates." He motioned to the other three.

Sora approached the man in blue. "Hi, I'm Sora. What's your name?"

"Setsuna F. Seiei." He responded in a rather flat tone. "It's good to know you are not an enemy, we could use all of the allies we can get right now."

At the same time, Donald was getting to know the man in orange. "I'm Donald Duck."

"Allelujah Haptism." He greeted with a friendly hand shake as well.

Goofy approached the other one dressed in purple. "A-hyuk, I'm goofy, what's your name, miss?"

Goofy's conversational partner looked like he/she was still trying to register Goofy's existence before responding. "Tieria Erde."

Goofy was taken aback by Tieria's voice. "Wow, you're a boy?"

Sora's attention was grasped when Tieria's gender was brought to light. "What? No way!" he said. "You're not a really pretty girl; you're actually a really pretty guy!?"

"I get that response often."

Sora scratched the back of his head as he tried to wrap his head around this. "Uh, okay…yeah." He looked around at the people around him. "Uh, thanks for coming to save us out there, and it's nice to meet all of you."

Suddenly, a large amount of sand bursted out of Sora and formed Ryutaros. "Hey, aren't you forgetting about me?!" The group's natural response to this phenomenon was to draw their guns and hold them at Ryutaros. "Whoa…" He put his hands up.

Sora pulled Lockon's gun down. "No wait, don't shoot! Ryutaros's quite harmless!"

"What is that thing?" Allelujah questioned.

"It's just a stupid Imagin." Donald stated while crossing his arms. "Nothing but trouble."

Setsuna and the others relaxed after Ryutaros was confirmed to be not a threat. "Talking sand monsters…now we've seen everything."

"Not quite." Jiminy jumped out from hiding and onto Sora's shoulder. He was writing down information in his journal and began motioning with his pen. "Lockon Stratos, Allelujah Haptism, Tieria Erde, and Setsuna F. Seiei." After registering their names, he jumped to the ground. "I'm Jiminy Cricket, the crew's journalist; I'm guessing you four are the ones in those mobile suits."

Tieria squatted down to get a close look at Jiminy. "That's correct."

"You people had great timing back there, but I wish you could save of a few more seconds of scare next time." Jiminy closed his journal. "You seem quite accepting of the nature of the people you just encountered, Tieria, I'm impressed."

"At this point, I'm pretty accepting of having a meaningful conversation with my refrigerator." Tieria stood up again. "Either way, when this is all over, I'm going to put myself through a series of sanity tests."

"Well, while we're in the middle of introducing pets, I'd like you all to meet my partner, Haro." Lockon picked up the small ball with the face and put it under his arm.

"Hello, Sora! Hello, Sora!" Haro spoke.

"Oh wow, that's so cool!" Sora commented.

"Actually, I'm not a pet." Jiminy stated. "Also, I want to confirm something with the four of you."

"What is it?" responded Setsuna.

"Are those mobile suits called Gundam?"

"Yes, but how do you know that?"

"Gundams?" Sora repeated the word, and then it hit him. "Wait, does that mean you guys are Celestial Being?!"

"So you've heard of us?" asked Lockon.

"Yeah, the A-Laws are looking for you guys."

"Are you guys with the A-Laws." questioned Tieria.

"What? No way!" Donald responded. "Those guys are all a bunch of morons like that Patrick guy!"

"Although there was that one cute one." commented Ryutaros.

"Oh, you mean Soma Peris?" asked Sora.

Allelujah responded immediately to that name. "Soma Peris!? You saw her?!"

"Yeah she was pretty nice to us, actually." Sora added. "Why, do you know here?"

"Yeah…in a way."

Setsuna put his hand on Sora's shoulder. "We've confirmed that you people are not a threat, we'll take you to see the rest of the crew, now."

"Yes, Miss. Sumeragi will want to meet all of you." Tieria stated. "Follow us to the ship's briefing room."

From Sora's guesses, Sumeragi was most likely their commander. He nodded and allowed the four pilots to lead them out of the hanger where their gummi ship would sit soundly as they met with the crew. Tieria was leading as they travelled through a brightly lit corridor of white walls and sliding doors. It was very much a maze, but somehow, they knew where they were going. Eventually, Tieria stopped in front of a door that looked just like the rest of them and opened it up with a press of a button. He turned to their guests and motioned. "Please go in, they are already inside."

"Okay." Sora headed in first, slowly, with Goofy and Donald trailing behind and Jiminy on Donald's hat. As Sora walked in, he found the room to be occupied by five other people; three women and two men, all in matching uniforms with different colors. One of the men, perhaps the oldest person in the room, had short black hair and wore glasses. His uniform's primary colors were black. Next to him was a younger man, but older than Sora, with very short hair and a muscular build. His uniform was also black with its sleeves rolled up. The youngest of the women was about 14 with a yellow uniform and blue skirt instead of the pants that everyone else wore with blown hair tied up on the sides of her head. She looked extremely excited to see Goofy and Donald when they entered behind Sora. Next was a pink haired girl around Sora's age that had a pink and green uniform that was almost as surprised to see the trio. Finally, the more mature woman that stood among them wore a confused expression. She wore a light purple uniform had brown hair that reached down to her shoulders. The air in the room was nothing short of awkward and confusing. "Um…hi?"

The brown haired woman nodded lightly. "…okay, maybe I do have a drinking problem."

"It's not your alcoholism, Miss. Sumeragi," Setsuna assured. "what you are seeing is real."

"Oh my gosh, really?!" the younger of the girls spoke with excitement.

"Holy shit." spoke the older gentleman as he adjusted his glasses. "I knew we were to expect strange and new things, but I think the standard has just been set."

The older woman nodded lightly in response to her crewmate's comments. "Okay…so, you were the ones on that ship?"

"Yeah." Sora clarified. "I'm Sora."

"Donald Duck." Donald spoke.

"Name's Goofy." Goofy declared.

Jiminy made himself noticeable by jumping up and down on Donald's hat. "I'm Jiminy Cricket."

"Quite a crowd, aren't they, Miss. Sumeragi." said Lockon.

Sora looked to Lockon and back to the burnet woman he was speaking to. "Oh, you're Sumeragi."

"Yes, Sumeragi Lee Noriega." She answered.

The younger burnet quickly approached Sora and grabbed his hand to shake it with excitement. "I'm Milena Vashti, Nice to meet you!"

"I'm Feldt Grace." said the pink haired girl, softly.

"Name's Ian Vashti," said the older man. "I'm the ship's mechanic."

"Name's Lasse Aeon." stated the man next to Ian. "ship's gunner and helmsman."

"Wait, only you people fly this huge ship?" Sora said in disbelief.

"Yeah, we are a bit understaffed, but we're working on that." stated Ian. "Speaking of staff, how'd you meet your crew?"

Sora looked back to Goofy and the others. "Oh, it's a long story."

Sumeragi approached. "I see you've met the Gundam Meisters."

"Yeah, but they were a little intimidating at first."

"We were following necessary precautionary measures." commented Tieria.

"You guys don't look like bad people, I wonder if the A-Laws know that." said Goofy.

"The A-Laws don't really know the identities of Celestial Being," Sumeragi Stated. "But it can be assumed that they know quite a bit right now."

Sora surveyed the room once more to examine the people before he came up with a question. "Where do you guys come from?"

"We come from Earth." Setsuna Stated. "Do you know of it?"

"Well yeah, I come from Earth."

"I see, so we can assume that the other worlds out there are alternate Earths." Setsuna said.

"So you guys are aware of the other worlds?"

"Only just recently." Lasse answered. "We realized that there was something otherworldly going on around us when our home was attacked by those same black creatures from before."

"What?" Donald replied. "You guys' world was attacked by the Heartless too?!"

"Yeah, we were swarmed by them." Allelujah stated. "It was like a living nightmare."

"Well, did you stop them?" Sora asked hoping for a yes. The robots they possessed were huge and, from what Sora had seen, very powerful; powerful enough to stop the Heartless. "You did right?" There was silence and everyone had a regretful expression on their faces. "No way…not even your Gundams can stop them…?"

"No…" Setsuna said. "While we fought hard, we could not prevent the swarm from engulfing our home. It was a worldwide invasion."

"Just like my home…" Sora commented to level with the others.

Sumeragi decided to speak up. "When we lost our home, we quickly learned about the other worlds as we moved throughout space in hopes of finding refuge."

The soft spoken Feldt Grace stepped forward to add to the conversation. "We were able to make refuge at some of our hidden bases in the area that had not been found out, but we're now traveling to the other worlds in hopes of finding others we can help."

"When we came to the conclusion that all of the worlds were being targeted by these…"

"Heartless." Donald stated.

"…Heartless, we decided that we could try to stop the spreading of their forces and save anyone we can." Lockon put his hand on his hip and shifted his weight to one leg. "That' why we picked you guys up."

"That's Celestial Being's mission." stated Setsuna. "We want to end this conflict."

"You're not alone there, Setsuna." said Jiminy. "We're also working towards fixing things."

"You guys?" said Lasse in great disbelief. "No offence, but you guys don't really look like combatants."

"You'd be surprised." Donald said proudly. "We've managed to stop the Heartless once before."

"What?" Tieria was a bit shocked. "You know how to stop those creatures?"

"Yeah, because we know who's controlling them and we're pretty sure she's still in charge." Sora said.

"Who is it?"

"A witch named Maleficent." Sora answered. "She controls the Heartless to control all of the worlds and she just employed a new kind of Heartless that can manipulate people to do her bidding."

"Tell us, was this Maleficent down on that world we were at earlier?" asked Ian.

"No, but someone who was supposed to help us was."

"Who was it?" asked Setsuna.

"Zeta Ishikawa." Sora said. "He's supposed to be this great warrior that could help us stop Maleficent's plans, but we don't know what's happened to him."

"This man lived on that world?" asked Setsuna.

"Yeah, but for all we know, the Heartless have gotten to him already."

"That's terrible." said Feldt.

"Is there the slightest chance that this person is still alive?" asked Tieria.

"We've never met him before, but we know that he is a very powerful man." commented Jiminy. "There might be a chance that he was not destroyed, but captured by Maleficent because she wants to use his power to her advantage."

"That's right!" Sora said. "She might be trying to control him with the new Heartless!"

"Then we should rescue him." stated Setsuna. He turned to his superior. "What do you think, Miss. Sumeragi?"

Sumeragi appeared to be pondering what to do given the current information. "When we reach one of our satellite bases, we'll be able to resupply and receive the equipment we need to keep fighting." The others waited for her final decision. "This is the best information we've gotten in a long time and I think we should follow it."

"Then we've got a plan?" asked Lockon, smiling with anticipation.

"Our mission is to rescue Zeta Ishikawa as we travel to the other worlds for leads on his location." Sumeragi stated. "To do this, we need everything you know about the situation and the Heartless, Sora. So we request that you stay with us."

"Got it!" Sora said.

"Stay Sora! Stay Sora!" repeated Haro as it floated around.

"We'll tell you everything we know." said Jiminy.

"Alright, we've gotten on track!" said Ian.

Feldt stepped forward and spoke to Sora. "If you're going to stay, let me show you around the ship."

"Okay, that sounds good."

Milena joined in. "I want to help too!" She took Donald by the hand and pulled him to the door. Goofy followed behind in haste. Sora and Feldt followed behind.

As they were leaving the room and Sumeragi was discussing the other details of the plan, Allelujah headed after Sora. "Sora, wait!"

Sora stopped in the hall and turned to Allelujah. "Huh, what's up, Allelujah?"

"You said you met Soma Peris once before, right?" he asked.

"Yeah, do you know her?"

"I do…is she alright?"

"Yeah, she's fine." Sora answered. "She's important to you, isn't she?"

Allelujah sighed. "Yeah."

Sora walked up to him. "I know what it's like to be far from the person you really care about." He put his hand on Allelujah's shoulder. "Don't worry; I'm sure everything will be fin between you two."

Allelujah smiled and nodded. "That's for that, Sora."

"If you ever need to talk about it, just come to me." Sora said. "I'll listen."

"Okay." Allelujah looked back to the briefing room. "I should get back, I need to hear this."

"Okay, I'll catch you later." As Allelujah headed back to the briefing room, Sora's powerless feeling from losing his island began to lift from him as he began to feel the alliance he had made with the Meisters and the rest of the crew. They would prove to be very powerful allies later on his adventure as he shares their struggles and their enemies as it turns out that they will share a common enemy.


	13. EX Chapter 1

KINGDOM HEARTS: LIMITLESS UNIVERSE

EXTRA CHAPTER 1: THE AUTHOR ADDRESSES THE READERS

Greetings readers, I would like to say that I am amazed. This story, Kingdom Hearts: Limitless Universe, has far exceeded its predecessor, Kingdom Hearts III: The New Crisis. I am actually overjoyed to know that with only 1/3 of the chapter count, that it has more views than the earlier, which I ceased to write because the plot was going all over the place and it became depressingly bad for me to write and it's not because of the grammatical errors (I'm working on those, trust me).

What I don't know is why it's doing so well even though there is only so much of the story available to read. I'm curious. So I would like to address the readers as I ask: What is it about this story that engages you as a reader? What is in it that you like and what do you want to see more of as it progresses?

I have allowed anonymous reviews for this story, so anyone can answer. Your feedback will be greatly appreciated and can be motivating for me to continue. If you are looking for better grammar and attention to such things as the differences between words like there, they're, and their, I'm working on it. Just leave your comments on this piece.

Thank you for reading .


End file.
